Lithuania: Convict for spying for Belarus to get compensation over bad conditions

Romualdas Lipskis, who was convicted for spying for Belarus, has seized €2,800 Euro from Lithuania over inadequate and unhealthy conditions of detention in Lukishki prison in Vilnius.

Being put in this prison in January 2014, Lipskis had been staying there during the pre-trial investigation and his trial. In total, he spent there about a year and a half. After the sentence came into force, he was transferred to a penal colony.

Vilnius Regional Administrative Court ruled that the prison had not provided 3.6 square meters, which is the minimum standard for one prisoner. Lipskis complained that there had been 3-4 persons in one cell; it had been cold, stuffy and he had stood no chance to do sports.

Initially, he sought €70,000 compensation from the state.

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In November 2015, Lipskis, a former employee of state company Oro Navigacija (Air Navigation), was sentenced to three years and three months behind bars in a correction house. guilty of espionage on behalf of a foreign state.

“On October 19, 2012 Lipskis made photos of classified documents and schemes. These data were delivered to a representative of foreign intelligence,” the judge said.

Belarusian surveillance officer Syarhei Kurulenka was the defendant’s spymaster, the judge stated. Kurulenka is known to have been collecting information about Lithuanian airfields: surveillance cameras recorded him walking near a military unit’s airfield. According to the Lithuanian side, Belarus might have shared the information obtained with Russia.

belsat.eu, following DELFI