A couple convicted of spying for Belarus has been sentenced to prison in Lithuania
On Wednesday, the Klaipėda District Court found Mindaugas Janutis and his partner Tetiana Beletska guilty of spying for Belarus. The court sentenced them to several years in prison.
This was reported by LRT.
The court sentenced Januitis to seven years in prison and Beletskaya to six and a half years. The court ruled that the more than two years spent in custody and under arrest would be credited toward the sentence.
The trial was held behind closed doors, and Judge Edita Lapinskienė announced only the introductory and concluding parts of the verdict.
The court found the cohabitants guilty of espionage, having carried out tasks for the benefit of another state or its organization and acting as part of an organized group.
"The court ruled (...) to find Mindaugas Januitis guilty of committing a criminal offense (...) and to sentence him to seven years of imprisonment. (...) to find Tetiana Beletska guilty of committing a criminal offense (...) and to sentence her to six years and six months in prison," Lapinskienė announced.
The court remanded the two defendants in custody until the verdict takes effect.
The Klaipėda Court’s decision may be appealed to the Court of Appeals within 20 days.
The court also ordered the confiscation of over 8,500 euros belonging to Beletskaya and 997 euros received from the sale of a car belonging to Januitis.
Items related to the case will also be confiscated: mobile communication devices, a Toyota Corolla with items found inside it, and a dashcam.
According to the case file, in May 2022, both defendants, citizens of Lithuania, traveled to Minsk, where, through an intermediary, they agreed on contacts and further cooperation with representatives of Belarusian military structures.
According to law enforcement agencies, following this meeting and until their arrest in November 2023, the cohabitants carried out tasks for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Belarusian Ministry of Defense.
On behalf of this organization, in exchange for monetary and other compensation, they collected and transmitted information of interest to the military structures of a foreign state in Lithuania and Latvia.
According to the case file, the information collected by the couple and transmitted to the Belarusian GRU is not classified, but is valuable both to the armed forces of foreign states in preparing plans for military aggression and for other actions directed against the state of Lithuania.
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