Paleckis has requested that the verdict be annulled, while prosecutors deem it legitimate and well-grounded.
The Supreme Court should rule in the case on 22 January next year. As a rule, an expanded panel hears cases that are significant for the society, as well as cases that form judicial practice. The Supreme Court's ruling will be final and not subject to appeals.
Under a ruling handed down by a Vilnius court on 12 June, Paleckis was imposed a fine of 10,400 litas (EUR 3,015). He was convicted for denial of the Soviet aggression following his statement to the media in 2010 when he said, in comment on the Soviet Union's attempts to overthrow the then Lithuania's government in early 1991, that "our own people were shooting at our own people." This was the first verdict in Lithuania's history on charges of denying aggressive conduct of the Soviet Union.
Fourteen unarmed civilians were killed and more than 1,000 were injured during the attempts of the Soviet army and special units to take over the Television Tower and the building of Lithuania's National Radio and Television on 13 January 1991. Soviet soldiers did not attempt to attack the Supreme Council that had proclaimed Lithuania's independence on 11 March 1990.
