Russia has refused to cooperate with the investigation and most of the accused, who live outside Lithuania, will stay away from the trial, which coincides with heightened tensions between Moscow and Vilnius over the Ukraine crisis, according to Ukraine Today.
Fourteen civilians were killed by the Soviet army in January 1991, prosecutors say. More than 700 others were wounded.
Prosecutors are also investigating whether to charge then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, now aged 84, and a decision is likely by the summer, investigating prosecutor Daiva Skorupskaite-Lisauskiene told Reuters.
See unian.info’s video section for more of the latest news from Ukraine in video from Ukraine Today, Ukraine’s 24-hour English-language news channel.
