BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/02/2009

Criminal case on death of Lithuanian security service officer dismissed

The public prosecutor of the General Prosecutor's Office of Lithuania, Mindaugas Gilys, has made a decision on termination of investigation of circumstances of death of the State Security Department (VSD) officer Vytautas Pociunas, online paper Delfi reports.

Investigation of the Lithuanian security service officer's death in Belarus was renewed on September 19, 2007, in connection with the application of court to examine circumstances of the incident. Vytautas Pociunas, a career officer in the department and a consular officer at the Lithuanian general consulate in Grodno, died suspiciously in Brest on August 23, 2006, after falling from the window of the Intourist Hotel. According to Belorussian investigators,

Pociunas accidentally fell out of the window while intoxicated. An alternative version of events, however, has provoked a scandal and prodded the Lithuanian parliament to open a serious investigation into the VSD's activities.

Vytautas Pociunas, This version was promulgated by the independent Lithuanian newspaper, which began its own investigations into the special services officer's death.

According to the newspaper Laisvas laikrastis, Pociunas was either poisoned or stunned by a blow to the head before being thrown out of the window. The newspaper also put forth a possible motive for murder: Pociunas had apparently undertaken, on his own initiative and without consulting the leadership of the VSD, investigations into the spending of $420 million that was purportedly given by the US Congress for the organization of a "color revolution" in Belarus. According to Laisvas laikrastis, Pociunas had discovered that the funds earmarked for democracy were being dishonestly "appropriated" by high-ranking officials from the VSD who had access to the money.

Source:

http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1765

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