The former President of the Soviet Union held as a witness to a war crime.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev summoned to court as a witness in cases related to events of 13 January 1991 in Vilnius, when the TV tower and the building of Committee of radio and TV stormed the Soviet military.
The idea to use Gorbachev as a witness belongs to the son of the deceased at the time of these events Apolinaras of Povilaitis. He believes that Gorbachev would know that the military was going to storm the television center, who defended the demonstrators, and opened fire on the crowd .
As a result of the storming of the television center in Vilnius that took place on the morning of 13 January 1991, 14 people were killed and hundreds were injured. In this regard, was initiated one of the largest in the history of Lithuanian justice Affairs, which in 2010 was changed to a war crime.
The Lithuanian authorities had previously tried to interrogate on the case of Gorbachev, but the Russian side refused each time. So, in January 2016, the Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s office reported that Russia refused to question at the request of Lithuanian prosecutors, the former President of the USSR.
By then the Soviet authorities, the army attacked the Vilnius television station in response to the request of the “Committee of national salvation”, an organization created by the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist party.
Troops occupied the TV tower and television and radio center, however, faced with the opposition of the demonstrators, and failed to seize the Parliament building.
Lithuania declared independence from Soviet Union on 11 March 1991, but Moscow has considered the decision unconstitutional. Earlier, Soviet authorities began a blockade of the energy of the Baltic republics.
January 9 on the streets of Vilnius were deployed by the Soviet soldiers under the pretext of search evading service in the army.
