Sunday, July 31, Vilnius - President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė took part in the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the tragedy in Medininkai.
The President underlined that the massacres in Medininkai and on January 13 were aimed at terrifying people, making them lose faith in freedom and abandon this goal but they only consolidated Lithuanians and made them even stronger. "Freedom was not offered to us as a gift, we shed our blood to defend it," President Dalia Grybauskaitė said.
Amendments to the Criminal Code initiated by the President encouraged a real breakthrough in the Medininkai case: no limitation period will be applied and in absentia proceedings will be possible.
"The today's commemoration of the tragedy is a continuation of our fight for freedom and justice. I believe justice will be served. Lithuanian people and all advanced humankind who love freedom need this. May the memory of this tragedy and our trust in justice consolidate us like back then," the President said, in tribute to the unarmed victims of the Medininkai tragedy.
According to the President, the tragedy in Medininkai and January 13 events are an open wound not only to us but also to the whole free Europe, as demonstrated by repercussions of the recent events in Austria where a suspect for these crimes escaped being surrendered to Lithuanian judicial authorities.
The President named this a vexing obstacle, but, she said, we achieved quite much in the past years: a judgment, although not final, has already been taken in one case, and major steps have been made to bring the rest of the cases before courts and seek final judgments.
After the commemoration in the location of the tragedy in Medininkai, the President honored the victims in the Antakalnio Cemetery.
Press Service of the President
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