On Thursday, Eldaras Salmanovas was the first to be questioned.
“I do not admit guilt,” the accused stated.
E. Salmanovas, who lives in Estonia, said that Andrej Baburov, a former submarine captain living in Russia, whom Lithuania has issued a search for, asked him to send a package to Riga.
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The massage devices and massage pillows (later it was revealed that they contained hidden incendiary devices) were delivered to his home by a mutual acquaintance of his and A. Baburov, Viačeslavas Aliochinas. E. Salmanovas sent the package.
Prosecutor Šarūnas Astrauskas asked the accused whether he agrees that Russia attacked Ukraine and that a war is ongoing. E. Salmanovas did not want to answer this question clearly.
“I am a pacifist. I love peace,” the accused replied to the prosecutor’s question.
As BNS wrote, charges related to incendiary devices sent abroad via DHL and DPD parcel services have been brought against Lithuanian citizen Aleksandras Šuranovas, Ukrainian citizens Vadym Borsuk and Vasilij Kovač, Daniil Jencius, who holds dual Russian and Lithuanian citizenship, and Russian citizen E. Salmanovas.
They are accused of a terrorist act and participation in an organized terrorist group whose goal is to commit terrorist crimes. Their ages range from 23 to 69 years.
As BNS reported earlier, in July 2024, four packages were sent from Lithuania to the United Kingdom and Poland.
Two packages transported by air reached a sorting center in Germany, where they were distributed for further transport. One of them caught fire at Leipzig airport just before being loaded onto a plane, the second caught fire in a warehouse in the UK.
The package delivered to Poland caught fire in the truck transporting it, the fourth package, transported by DPD freight land transport, did not catch fire due to a device malfunction and was seized by officials. Upon examination, a triggering mechanism was identified and the danger assessed.
According to the charges, the fire in the UK caused nearly 400,000 euros in damage, in Germany – 126,000 euros, in Poland – nearly 62,000 euros.
According to officials, the mentioned accused are executors, intermediaries, while the crime organizers are in Russia and currently unreachable. It was established that the crimes were organized by the Russian Armed Forces’ Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).
According to the charges, the packages with incendiary devices were sent from Lithuania by Lithuanian citizen A. Šuranovas, who used false identity data.
The criminal case is separated from another investigation, in which at least 16 citizens of various countries have currently been identified as organizers, planners, and contributors to terrorist crimes in different countries.
Law enforcement agencies of Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom, operating in a joint investigation team coordinated by Eurojust, stopped attacks planned to be carried out in Europe using self-igniting packages and identified the persons who planned and carried out the crimes.
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