Couple given long sentences in Lithuania for spying for Belarus
The Klaipėda District Court on Wednesday found Mindaugas Januitis and Tatiana Beletskaya guilty of spying for Belarus and sentenced them to several years in prison, LRT writes .
The court sentenced Januitis to seven years of imprisonment, and Beletskaya to six and a half years. The court ruled to include more than two years spent in custody and under house arrest in the sentence.
The case was heard in a closed session, and Judge Edita Lapinskienė announced only the introductory and concluding parts of the verdict.
The court recognized the cohabitants as spies who carried out tasks for the benefit of another state or its organization and acted as part of an organized group.
"The court decided to find Mindaugas Januitis guilty of committing a criminal offense and sentence him to seven years of imprisonment, and to find Tatiana Beletskaya guilty of committing a criminal offense and sentence her to six years and six months of imprisonment," Lapinskienė announced. An appeal against the Klaipėda Court's decision to the Court of Appeal is possible within 20 days.
The court also ruled to confiscate over 8,500 euros belonging to Beletskaya and 997 euros obtained from the sale of a car belonging to Januitis.
Items relevant to the case will also be confiscated: mobile communication devices, a Toyota Corolla car with items found inside it, and a dashcam.
According to the case materials, in May 2022, both defendants, citizens of Lithuania, traveled to Minsk, where, through an intermediary, they arranged contacts and further cooperation with representatives of Belarusian military structures.
According to law enforcement data, after this meeting and until their arrest in November 2023, the cohabitants carried out tasks for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense.
On behalf of this organization, in exchange for monetary and other remuneration, they collected and transmitted information of interest to the military structures of a foreign state in Lithuania and Latvia.
According to the case materials, the information collected by the cohabitants and transmitted to the Belarusian GRU is not secret, but it is valuable both for the armed forces of foreign states in preparing plans for military aggression and for other measures directed against the state of Lithuania.
The BNS agency reported that one of the convicted individuals joined the Riflemen's Union with the aim of spying for Belarus. The organization previously stated that it expelled this person from its ranks in 2024.
This criminal case was referred to court in March 2025.