2024-08-01 01:41:44
The court rejected the submission of the 2nd prison of Pravieniškiäs regarding the change of the harshest sentence for V. Beleckis to limited imprisonment – it was decided that there is no basis for this.
The panel met on Wednesday morning, and the decision was announced at the end of the working day at 4:00 p.m. 30 minutes
The organizer of the murder, which shocked the public, has been trying to escape from prison since 2019, but considering the gravity of the crimes committed, all requests of V. Belecko are rejected.
According to the law, requests for life sentences to be commuted to fixed-term imprisonment of 5-10 years are considered after 20 years of imprisonment.
After the 20-year deadline, applications can be made once a year.
When considering the relevant requests, the seriousness of the crime, the behavior of the convicted person in prison, the degree of risk of repeated criminal behavior, whether he has compensated the victims’ relatives, and other factors are taken into account.
One of the 10 most famous crimes
During the last hearing, Kaunas prosecutor Darius Jakutis suggested rejecting V. Belecki’s request for a reduced sentence, and the court agreed with his arguments.
“This crime is an example of the negative history of Lithuania – it can be said that it is one of the ten most famous crimes during the entire period of restored independence.
A person who has committed such a crime must realize that special merit is needed to change the sentence”, said D. Jakutis to the portal lrytas.lt, not seeing the appropriate behavior of V. Beleckos in the prison.
The prosecutor emphasized that V. Beleckas caused damage not only to the relatives of R. Mikutavičiaus, but also to society, to the whole of Lithuania.
The enormous damage could be at least partially compensated by returning some of the stolen paintings that have not yet appeared, but this has not been done so far.
True, V. Beleckas can still appeal the last unfavorable decision to the Court of Appeals – he will probably use this right, because he simply has nothing left to lose.
Awarded over 400,000 euros
The issue of reducing V. Beleck’s sentence was considered in 2023 as well.
The Court of Appeal of Lithuania emphasized at the same time that without knowing the details of the victim’s current account, V. Beleckas could have paid the obligation – the awarded claims to the account of a notary, a bank or another credit institution, but, again, he did not do so.
Prosecutor D. Jakutis reminded this argument of the Court of Appeal even now, when the Kaunas District Court is considering the latest submission regarding the mitigation of the sentence, because the situation has not changed – V. Beleckas has still not transferred the money to the deposit account, nor has he compensated for the damage.
The lawsuits awarded to the close relatives of R. Mikutavičius from the organizer of his murder amount to 401,636 euros.
The body was drowned in the river
The famous Kaunas priest, poet, collector Ričardas Mikutavičius (1935-1998) was murdered on July 1, 1998 – after luring him into a stranger’s apartment, the criminals, who shocked Lithuania with their brutality, drugged him with ether, put his body in the trunk of a car, took him to the Nemunas River and drowned him.
The works of art stolen from the priest’s house were valued at almost 1.5 million. euros, some of them were found.
V. Beleckis was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2000.
2024-08-01 01:41:44