VILNIUS — Police investigators have discovered that suspected killer Drąsius Kedys possesses a valid Russian visa, raising the possibility that the Lithuanian fugitive has escaped into the small Baltic state’s mammoth neighbor.
Despite Kedys’ previous imprisonment in Russia on smuggling charges, the Russian embassy confirmed to investigators that it issued Kedys a visa this summer, months before the Oct. 5 double murder in Kaunas that Kedys is the primary suspect in. A visa is necessary for any foreign national from a European Union member state to enter the Russian Federation.
Lithuania borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, but the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service has no record of Kedys leaving Lithuania for Russia. However, it’s possible that he may left Lithuania to another Schengen Zone country like Latvia or Poland, which do not have border controls with Lithuania, and then entered Russia.
The State Border Guard Service though has not received any notification from any other country that Kedys has either done or attempted to do so. Kedys is currently wanted under an Interpol warrant, so if he did attempt to exit another European Union country using his own name it’s likely that he would be caught.
“We have not received any information about him crossing the border,” Rokas Pukinskas, State Border Guard Service spokesman told Baltic Reports. “We have no information whether he is in Lithuania or not.”
Prosecutor dismissal recommended
Meanwhile Kedys’ claims that prosecutors were neglecting the investigation his daughter’s alleged sexual assault gained some credence on Friday.
Lithuania’s General Prosecutor’s Office announced that its internal investigation, ordered by President Dalia Grybauskaitė two weeks ago, found that Genovaitė Ročienė, a prosecutor at the District Prosecutor’s Office of the City of Kaunas should be dismissed for mishandling the investigation of the sexual assault of Kedys’ daughter.
“The prosecutor was controlling the investigation at the first, i.e. police, level, and then conducted the investigation herself for almost half a year. Especially during the latter period no actions necessary for the successful investigation of the case were performed. In other words, even though non-typical sexual abuse against the minor was reported, only the usual investigative steps were performed and no other necessary measures were undertaken,” Aidas Mažeika, a member of the Commission for Internal Audit said during the press conference Friday.
The Commission of Internal Audit, tasked with the president-ordered inquiry, concluded that there were no internal or external factors that should have delayed the investigation of the alleged sexual assault of Kedys’ daughter.
Instead the culprit was negligence on Ročienė’s part due to her insufficient competence. The commission also suggests that milder penalties should be imposed on four prosecutors from Kaunas Prosecutor’s Office and two prosecutors from Prosecutor General’s Office. The case was passed between three prosecutor’s offices before the Oct. 5 killings.
This week Prosecutor General Algimantas Valantinas will decide how to impose the penalties endorsed by the commission.
