A trial opened in Lithuania on Wednesday (January 27) against dozens of former Soviet military officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in a 1991 crackdown on the Baltic state's pro-independence movement, Ukraine Today reported citing Reuters.
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.
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