19 July 2011
Irena Degutienė,
Speaker of the Seimas, signed the letters to Jerzy Buzek,
President of the European Parliament, and all the Members of the European
Parliament asking whether Austrias action to release the suspect in the case
of 13 January 1991 means that the EU is no longer a club of equal members subject
to the same principles of law while exceptions and double standards are
possible.
The
following is the text of the letter of the Speaker of the Seimas to the
President and Members of the European Parliament:
Dear Mr President,
This letter was impelled to be written by an unexpected affront of
Austria, an EU Member State, to Lithuania, another EU member, when Austria
released the detained Russian citizen who is charged with war crimes by the
Lithuanian law enforcement institutions.
Austrias action resulted in a boisterous reaction in Lithuania and
raised a very important question to the whole European Union: is the EU still a
club of equal members which share common values and the same understanding of
justice, especially on issues of great importance, such as fundamental human
rights and freedoms and liability for war crimes and crimes against humanity?
Or perhaps double standards are applied to particular Member States?
On 14 July 2011, pursuant to the European Arrest Warrant issued by the
Prosecutor-Generals Office of the Republic of Lithuania, former KGB colonel
Mikhail Golovatov was detained at Vienna
International Airport. He is charged by the Lithuanian law enforcement
institutions with giving an order on the night of 13 January 1991 to use armed
force against unarmed people who defended the restored independence and
democracy of Lithuania and fought for the fundamental European values, such as
human rights and freedoms, freedom of speech, and equal justice to all.
Fourteen unarmed people were killed and thousands were injured on that night.
This tragic historical night was of crucial importance not only to Lithuania
but to the whole democratic Europe and the world. The courage and determination
of Lithuanians set an example to other nations enslaved by the USSR and
encouraged Russians to fight against the putschists 8
months later and destroy the most powerful empire at the time.
This year we commemorated the 20th anniversary of 13 January
1991 events. The commemorative event was called the Battle for the Freedom of Nations.
That is why the decision of the Austrian law enforcement institutions
taken on the night of 16 July 2011 to release Golovatov,
suspect of war crimes, has caused great grievance to the Lithuanian society and
brought us back to those times when we were all alone fighting for the European
values against the most powerful empire.
After this decision was made by the Austrian law enforcement
authorities, we conducted an urgent parliamentary investigation and concluded
that the actions of Austria constitute a gross violation of international and
EU law. Mutual recognition of the decisions of national judicial authorities,
the European Arrest Warrant procedure, as well as the principle of mutual
trust, inter alia, established in the
Preamble and Article 1 of the Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on the
European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States
(2002/584/JHA), form the basis of cooperation in legal matters between the EU
Member States. These key principles have been violated by releasing a war
criminal in as few as several hours after the detention. The release of the
suspect has demonstrated that Austria denies recognition to the decisions of
the Lithuanian judicial authorities in cases of crimes against humanity and war
crimes and does not trust Lithuania as a fellow EU Member State.
The explanations offered by Austria on the alleged lack of data and
alleged unclarity of the arrest warrant are
superficial and fail to comply with the EU legislation, which does not allow
for any substantive questioning or review of the legitimacy of an arrest
warrant once it has been issued. Decisions on the criminal liability of persons
lie within the competence of the state issuing the arrest warrant, rather than
the state implementing it. There were no grounds for mandatory non‑execution
of the European Arrest Warrant under the Council Framework Decision of 13 June
2002 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member
States (2002/584/JHA) in this case.
The action of Austria raises serious doubt over the independence of the
Austrian judiciary and Austrian national courts, as they have obviously failed
to meet the rules of administration of justice. Under the Austrian national
law, Mr Mikhail Golovatov was to be detained for
at least 48 hours. In compliance with the Convention relating to extradition
between the Member States of the European Union and the European Convention on Simplified Extradition Procedure and its
additional protocols, the detention could last up to 18 days and more. However,
according to the data submitted to us, Mr Golovatov
was released within as few as one day and a half after his detention.
Notably, the Russian media openly informs its audience that the decision
of the Austrian law enforcement authorities was made subsequent to interference
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and General
Prosecutors Office of the Russian Federation.
Please be informed that on 19 February 2008, in the judgement on the
case of Kuolelis, Bartoševičius,
and Burokevičius v. Lithuania, the European Court of
Human Rights denied legitimacy to the argument about the alleged politicization
of the case into the events of 13 January 1991 frequently expressed by Russia
and Belarus in an attempt to clear the suspects in the case. Therefore, any
actions of the EU Member States have to be guided by the decisions of the
European supreme judicial authorities, rather than Russian and Belarusian
motives.
This unprecedented event is not a problem for Lithuania or Austria
alone. This is an issue with repercussions for the entire European Union, its
fundamental values and justice. It raises doubts about the trustworthiness of
the European Union as a whole and every Member State in particular. Therefore,
we request you to initiate an investigation into the issue at the European
Parliament and to submit a political evaluation of this event.
Secretariat
of the Speaker of the Seimas
Juozas
Ruzgys, Adviser, Tel. +370 5 239 6023, +370 698 42073
