Prosecutors in Lithuania have declared that a fire at an IKEA warehouse in Vilnius last May was a terrorist attack. They have referred the case to the courts for further consideration.
Officials say that they have determined that the attack was waged by a terrorist group and that it was perhaps masterminded and ordered by people with links to Russian special services.
“The indictment has been signed, and the case is being forwarded to the Vilnius Regional Court,” reporters were told on Monday by Arturas Urbelis, chief prosecutor at the Prosecutor General Office’s Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation Department.” The charges have been filed under three articles of the Criminal Code – committing a terrorist act, training for terrorist purposes, and illegal use of explosives.”
The crime has been classified as terrorist activity with serious consequences. It caused severe damage to the shop and endangered a number of people, the prosecutor declared. Although the fire started around 4:00 AM, there were about 10 people in the building at that time.
Ordered by Russians, executed by Ukrainians
Pre-trail investigators have found that the crime was perpetrated by two persons under the age of 20. One of them was a minor, and “details about this person will not be disclosed for that reason,” a prosecutor said, adding that both suspects are citizens of Ukraine.
“One person has been detained in Poland, and we are currently handing over a part of our case to our Polish counterparts, as has been agreed,” Urbelis says. “This crime is being investigated by a joint team, and we are co-ordinating our actions with the Poles.” The prosecutor added that the IKEA fire is one of the first cases in which the crime has been seen as having been committed by a terrorist group.
The pre-trial investigation into the fire at the IKEA warehouse was launched on May 9, 2024, and Urbelis says that there were immediate suspicions that it might have had to do with the Russian special services, its military structures or other security units.
“During the investigation we found that the masterminds behind these activities were linked to Russia through a series of intermediaries,” the prosecutor explained. “They were linked to military intelligence and security forces. Because a terrorist group has been identified in this case, there are more people who are suspected of having been involved in the commission of this crime.”
Urbelis adds that the group co-ordinated its processes through the social media and relied on encoded messaging.
Source: BNS
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