The academy's rector Audrius Klimas has been informed about criminal proceedings in connection to the event.
According to the report, the authorities have established that a delegation of the annual nation-wide fashion and photography contest Fashion Mill of the Belarusian State University's Youth Fashion Center attended an international youth creativity event Fashion Mill in Vilnius on 10 June through 3 July 2010 at the invitation of the academy's then rector Adomas Butrimas.
Lithuanian investigators asked the academy to specify the representative of Vilnius Art Academy who was authorized to contact the Belarusian State University's Youth Fashion Center about participation of its members in the events in Vilnius, other organizational matters, dates of communication regarding invitations, visas and issuing conditions.
According to a letter signed by Edmundas Malukas, acting chief of Criminal Police Bureau's 2nd Division, the academy is also asked to provide information about events attended by the Belarusian delegation, the academy's representative in charge of its organization, dates, numbers and locations of appearances.
The authorities also inquired about organizers and technical support, splitting of costs between visiting and receiving participants, including accommodation, food and visas for the Belarusian participants.
The Vilnius Art Academy's rector, Klimas, was astonished over the letter. He said the criminal service was probably not obligated to provide detailed information about the criminal investigation underway in Belarus into the activities of individuals who attended events in Vilnius.
"The case is probably not directly related with the event. Maybe the people participated somewhere else and violated some legal acts or political provisions of Belarus?" he said.
Lietuvos Rytas said it had unofficial information about Belorussian law-enforcement collecting data about the head of the Belorussian delegation, Sasha Varlamov.
Varlamov-led Youth Fashion Center has been holding contemporary fashion, photography and design festivals Fashion Mill in Minsk for the past 19 years, collecting funds from private sponsors.
According to the daily, criminal police and the Prosecutor General's Office refrained from further actions on their actions. Lithuania has recently been in a scandal of legal cooperation with Belarus.
Based on data provided by Poland and Lithuania, a Belorussian court has sentenced a prominent human rights activist Ales Belyatsky to 4.5 years in prison for tax evasion.
The Western world condemned the verdict as politically motivated. Lithuania apologized Belyatsky's family but accused Minsk of using the international treaty for illegitimate goals.
Major doubts
After the Ales Belyatsky scandal, Belarusian requests for legal assistance raise major doubts to Lithuania and require thorough examination, chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Emanuelis Zingeris, said after Belarus took interest in the events at Vilnius Art Academy.
His opinion was seconded by the committee's vice-chairman, Justinas Karosas, who said that Lithuania should check for what was, in his words, political lining in the case.
"After the last two experiences, inquiries of the Belarusian law-enforcement in the Lithuanian territory raise major doubts. After the Belyatsky story, requests from Belarus should be triple-checked whether they contain additional undertones (…), as fairness of Belarusian law-enforcement is questionable," Zingeris told BNS.
Zingeris said it was difficult to comment on the neighboring country's actions without further data on the reasons of the probe, saying that the actions sounded "rather odd."
He emphasized the need for thorough assessment of possible political motives behind the call for legal assistance in order to avoid mistakes that were made when Lithuania provided data about the Belarusian human rights activist Belyatsky who was later sent to prison for 4.5 years for tax evasion.
"If this is an attempt of the (Belarusian President) Alexander Lukashenko clan to fish out its men, it would be highly censurable, we would have to look into the reasons behind the havoc and check for political reasons," Zingeris said.
Meanwhile, Karosas said that the legal language was understandable in the legal assistance treaty, however, “law is highly related with politics” in the Belarusian case, therefore, the requests should be subjected to additional examination.
"In the purely legal sense, it is a matter-of-course that we have the treaty on legal assistance and are required to provide the assistance. However, we also know that such things in Belarus have a political undertone, and we should first of all find out whether there is a political lining under the criminal matter," Karosas told BNS.
Won't share information
A Belarusian legal assistance request regarding an event that took place at Vilnius Academy of Arts might not be satisfied if other Lithuanian institutions express such a position, Lithuania's prosecutor General's Office said on Friday.
"Information is being collected at the moment, and legal assistance is not being provided. The prosecutor's office checks every request, and this one was perfectly standard, meeting all requirements for such requests," Rūta Dirsienė, head of the Public Relations Division of the Prosecutor General's Office, told BNS, adding that the request was related to an alleged fraud case and was submitted in December.
"The information is being investigated but that doesn't mean that it will be automatically passed to Belarus. If other institutions say that this information is not to be shared, it won't be," Dirsienė said.
