Drąsius Kedys giving an interview with the Lithuanian media about his daughter's case before the Kaunas double murder.
The Drąsius Kedys case makes me feel uncomfortable, mostly because I am not sure how I see it. I prefer my moral questions with a clear-cut, right or wrong, answer.
In this case, it’s more difficult. On the one hand, he allegedly took the law into his own hands and committed a series of murders, which is undeniably wrong. On the other hand, if you agree that what he said happened to his daughter did indeed happen, then it becomes easier to understand why he would feel that he needed to resort to vigilante justice.
Having someone hurt your children is not something that inspires calm, well thought-out reactions. I don’t even know what to say about the fact that he was found dead, except that I think it’s going to be tough to find out the truth about why that happened.
The person I feel sorry for is the daughter. No matter what the facts in the case, that little girl is going to have a hard time of it. First, she was victimized, either by the men that the father accused of doing so, or by her father in forcing her to attest to something that didn’t happen (I find the latter unlikely, but it must be said).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHMSBXcqIhU
A video interview Kedys made with his daughter about the alleged sex abuse, originally posted on his website www.pedofilai.com, which is no longer on the Internet.
Now, her father is dead, and she is being held in limbo, without a calm place to land. Whether the people who are preventing her from being returned to her mother are protecting her from further abuse or keeping her from her only living parent without sufficient cause, the fact remains that her life must be unbelievably chaotic and I cannot imagine that it is making losing her father any easier.
Some of the blame also must lie with the criminal justice system. Kedys tried to get resolution for his complaint, and there is little evidence that he was given any reason to believe that progress was being made on the case, one way or another.
It is the responsibility of any criminal justice system to guarantee that people will see some resolution to their complaints. I cannot guess the facts of the case, but it is obvious that there was a major failure in the system that they couldn’t prove or disprove his claims within a reasonable amount of time, or even show him that they were making progress toward an outcome. Prosecutors say Kedys was “uncooperative” — was he, or they?
If we want to prevent people from appointing themselves judge and jury in a case like this, the criminal system that is relied upon to dispense justice absolutely has to be effective in doing so.
If there is any good to come out of a tragic case like this one, it should be in making sure that the next time that someone makes accusations as weighty as the ones that Kedys made, that they are taken seriously and the investigation is swift and thorough.
Fixing the problem won’t restore all the people that were killed in this horrible situation, and it can’t make the little girl’s life any easier, but it might make it so that another family doesn’t have to be torn apart.
To see more of Baltic Reports’ extensive coverage of the Kedys case, click here and scroll down.
Charissa Brammer is an American student that has been studying at Vilnius University since the fall. Read more of her writing here.
Disclaimer:
Views expressed in the opinion section are never those of the Baltic Reports company or the website’s editorial team as a whole, but merely those of the individual writer.
Drasius Kedys didn’t murder anyone. He was set up. There are witnesses coming out and telling what they saw. Narusevicienes neighbors saw how Drasius was kidnapped the morning of murders – Oct.5, 2009. They spoke to the police and prosecutors, but they were threatened and told to stay quiet. This morning their story was published on Laisvas Laikrastis website. About an hour later, the whole website was closed down. Why? Because there is truth in this? Also, there is a witness who saw the murder of Furmanavicius and she said there were two people and definitely neither one of them was Drasius. (http://naujienublokas.lt/naujiena/43522).
Even the evidence that the prosecutor Kliunka was giving in yesterdays conference is contradicting his own investigation. People, please read the news, watch TV and use your head. Put the dates and times together and you’ll get the real story. The prosecutors are feeding us what they want us to believe, but what about the people who saw this, what about the people who were witnesses to this whole thing? How come they disappear or are found dead?
Please, read the news. There are more and more witnesses coming out who saw how Kedys was kidnapped the mornign of the murders near Narusevicienes house. Who then were threatened and told to be quiet. Why does the website of the news paper Laisvas Laikrastis gets shut down immediately after they publish this interview with the witness? There is also another witness who saw the same two men kill Furmanavicius – and they say – neither one of the men where Kedys. How come there is soooo much contradicting evidence in the prosecutors findings? Kedys did not murder anyone! He was set up!
Free media just found several witnesses who testimonies denies accusations of Lithuanian General Prosecutor that Drasius Kedys was a murderer of judge J. Furmanavicius and Ms. Naruseviciene. One woman saw the so called control shot to the head of already hit and J. Furmanavicius. And she insist, that the shooter was for sure not Drąsius Kedys, but a man with brown hair. While he shot the final shot another man was waiting siting in the white VW Transporter. Later hitman drive VW out to another victim’s house.
Drasius Kedys did appear with his car at the second target place (just before of just after Ms. Naruseviciene was shot dead by the hitmen, probably the same) reacting to the fake call to him. But he went to ask his informers first – the neighbours. He asked (when he started his private investigation) neighbours of Ms Naruseviciene to register all the cars that are visiting her house, because he wanted to find the third still unidentified pedo Aidas from the gang (in order to made his name public and to be identified by his molested daughter). He asked the pair of neighbours if they made a call. They say no. But there was one unidentified car near her house seen from there. So he went strait to the Ms. Naruseviciene house to check if this really this Aidas. When he went closer he took out his gun Beretta but the two men came out from that car, arrested him, placed him in to that car and drive out from that place very fast. One of them drive out with Drąsius car. Later neighbours saw the bunch of police cars rushed in. Drąsius gun Beretta was found near the body of Ms. Narusheviciene. Day or so later some woman (probably from police) and ordered not to tell anybody what they saw if saw something.. So people were afraid till now.
After some paper http://www.laisvaslaikrastis.lt have placed a fragment of article about these witnesses. The site was closed. You can check: http://www.laisvaslaikrastis.lt
Please, read the news. There are more and more witnesses coming out who saw how Kedys was kidnapped the mornign of the murders near Narusevicienes house. Who then were threatened and told to be quiet. Why does the website of the news paper Laisvas Laikrastis gets shut down immediately after they publish this interview with the witness? There is also another witness who saw the same two men kill Furmanavicius – and they say – neither one of the men where Kedys. How come there is soooo much contradicting evidence in the prosecutors findings? Kedys did not murder anyone! He was set up!
I am much more skeptical about this whole story. You shall not forget that Kedys’ sister is a judge (in fact, Mr. Furmanavicius, who was allegedly killed by Kedys, was her colleague in the same district court), moreover, at least two of Kedys’ close relatives are lawyers.
It is hard to believe that he, given that he had such hard evidence, could not find justice – with the help of a judge and two professional lawyers!!! It is much more likely that this whole story is fake, and the only piece of real evidence is this one video, which, lets admit it, might have been faked too. Of course our legal system is not perfect, but there can be no excuse for killing two people.
Last week, when Kedys’ daughter had to be taken to a regular visit with her mother, an angry mob did not let the car with the girl out. One of the protesters opened the door of the car, and started shouting loudly to Kedys’ daughter: “Tell them that you don’t want to see your mother! Tell them!”. All of this was filmed by dozens of journalists and was soon available in all of the media portals in Lithuania (I think soon we will have live television broadcasts from that place). Kedys’ daughter was obviously in shock, her hands shaking and she started crying (all of this was on TV!) and of course she gave in and said she did not want to see her mother.
It is hard to understand why this public spectacle was done: Kedys’ family and the protesters outside their house claim they are there to fight for the girl and her interests. But I started doubting it when I saw that horrible scene all over the media. I am no psychologist, but it is obvious that this girl is suffering deeply because of this whole nonsense (protesters outside her house, unknown people shouting at her). She probably would be better off in state’s custody until this all thing is over.