CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
Criminal offences against equal rights and freedom of conscience
With the Law on Responsibility for the Genocide of Residents of Lithuania which came into effect on 9 April 1992 and the legislator of the Republic of Lithuania having determined that no time limitations shall applied to the criminal liability for very grave crimes against humanity for the first time, the Prosecutor’s Office became the sole procedural institution in Lithuania having the right to conduct preliminary interrogation in the criminal cases of genocide that was committed in Lithuania during the Soviet and Nazi occupation.
On 1 May 2003 a new version of the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Lithuania came into effect; since that date the Prosecutor’s Office directs pre-trial investigations into all crimes including crimes of the above-mentioned category. Moreover, prosecutors have procedural right to conduct and in fact conduct pre-trial investigations into the crimes in question.
The main function of conducting pre-trial investigation into crimes against humanity including genocide, war crimes, as well as criminal offences against equal rights and freedom of conscience (discrimination, incitement against a person on the basis of his sex, sexual orientation, race, nationality, language, origin, social status, believes, convictions or any other dependability specified in the law; making hindrances to perform religious ceremony or celebration) and control and coordination thereof and methodical direction is performed by Special Investigations Division of Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Lithuania. This Division was established as a separate structural division of Prosecutor General’s Office on the basis of 23 October 1991 Resolution of Presidium of Reconstituted Parliament, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania.
The main objectives of the Special Investigations Division are as follows:
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to ensure that pre-trial investigation into crimes against humanity, war crimes as well as crimes and misdemeanours against equal rights and freedom of conscience is conducted in compliance with provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, international treaties, Criminal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and other laws and legislative acts;
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to seek that all persons who have committed criminal offences are brought to criminal prosecution;
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on the basis of persons’ petitions, applications or complaints, to make grounded and lawful decisions regarding the restoration of persons’ civil rights which were repressed during occupations in Lithuania, deportation of people with the view of forced labour or unlawful keeping of people in the ghettos, concentration camps or any other places of forced detention as well as regarding application of other repression, acknowledging the victims of the events on 11-13 January 1991 and statement of facts of aggression committed by the USSR in Lithuania;
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to seek that all former ungrounded and unlawful decisions made by the Prosecutor General’s Office and other institutions regarding the restoration of civil rights of the persons who suffered from repressive actions by occupational regimes were identified, examined and revoked in accordance with the procedure prescribed by laws, with priority being given to the identification, examination and revocation of decisions made in respect of persons who participated in the crimes against humanity, war crimes, massacre and torture of unarmed civilians.
There are four prosecutors and one assistant to the chief prosecutor working in the Special Investigations Division which is directed by the Chief Prosecutor Mr. Rimvydas Valentukevičius.
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The Chief Prosecutor of the Division is also the Member of the European Union Network of Contact Points in Respect of Persons Responsible for Genocide and Crime against Humanity and War Crimes. In addition, he participates in international expert meetings on war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity initiated by Interpol Secretariat General, conferences into the issues related with the crimes of the above-mentioned category and criminal offences against equal rights and freedom of conscience taking place in Lithuania and abroad.
Prosecutors working in the Special Investigations Divisions regularly participate in the sessions of interdepartmental commission for assessing the activities of persons who had secretly collaborated with special services of the former USSR and adopting decisions on including persons in a report publication of data concerning secret collaboration, and Interdepartmental Commission for the Rights of Resistance Participants and Resisters.