Russian military intelligence is responsible for the arson attack on an Ikea store in Vilnius last May and one of the suspects is in custody in Poland, on Monday, the 17th of March, said the Lithuanian prosecutor, according to Euronews and LRT.
Western officials say sabotage cases have risen sharply in Europe in recent years and Russian paid agents are believed to be suspected of various crimes. Russia has regularly denied any involvement.
“The indictment has been signed and the case will be transferred to the Vilnius Regional Court. […] The charges are based on three articles of the Criminal Code, namely committing a terrorist act, training for terrorism and illegal handling of explosives,” Arturas Urbelis, chief prosecutor of the Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, told reporters on Monday.
The prosecutor’s office said that the data obtained in the pre-trial investigation materials allowed to “reasonably assume” that the person acted in the interests of “the military structures and security services of the Russian Federation”, through a long chain of intermediaries, in a previously established terrorist organisation.
The main suspect accepted payment as part of a terrorist organisation planning attacks in Lithuania and Latvia, the statement said on Monday.
The attack was carried out by two Ukrainian citizens, Urbelis said. One of the suspects, who was a minor, was detained in Lithuania shortly after the crime en route to Riga, he said.
“One person is currently detained in Poland, and a parallel process is underway to transfer part of the case to Polish colleagues, which has been agreed, as there is a joint investigation team in this pre-trial investigation and the actions are being coordinated with the Poles,” Urbelis said.
A statement from the Prosecutor General’s Office said that the suspect and the other person, during a secret meeting in Warsaw, undertook to set fire to and blow up shops in Lithuania and Latvia for a reward of 10 000 euros. The reward included a BMW, the statement said.
The Lithuanian prosecutor stated that the suspect’s aim in carrying out such attacks was to intimidate and divide both Lithuanian and Latvian society and to put pressure on the authorities to stop supporting Ukraine.