This January, after checking a regular bus entering the territory of the Republic of Lithuania, travelling from Riga to Warsaw, officers of the State Border Guard Service (hereinafter – SBGS) noticed two young women who presented documents issued in the Republic of Greece to Eritrean citizens – a residence permit and refugee travel documents. It soon became clear that the bus passengers were actually from Ethiopia, and the mentioned documents did not belong to them. Both women had illegally entered Latvia from Belarus about half a year ago and lived in a refugee centre.
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An Eritrean citizen, J. M. A., who had a residence permit in Great Britain, was travelling on the same bus. Although the foreign women claimed not to know him, border guards found a photo on one of these women’s phones of a bank transfer, by which 550 British pounds sterling were transferred to the mentioned Eritrean citizen. All three foreigners were detained by officers.
During the pre-trial investigation, it was revealed that one of the detained women had communicated with J. M. A. via social networks for more than half a year, discussing in one of the messages the possibility of travelling from Belarus to Latvia, and later – from Latvia to Poland. It was also established that the mentioned Eritrean citizen brought them foreign documents to Riga, which the women intended to use to reach Western Europe, and helped them buy bus tickets.
Panevėžys Regional Court, having examined this criminal case, delivered a guilty verdict on July 23. The Eritrean citizen was sentenced to a combined 1 year imprisonment. Both illegal migrants were sentenced to 1 year and 8 months of restriction of liberty for using stolen documents.
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The court’s verdict can be appealed to the Lithuanian Court of Appeal within 20 days from its announcement.
In accordance with the presumption of innocence, a person is considered innocent until their guilt is proven in the manner prescribed by law and recognized by a final court judgment.
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