Judging Failed To Stop Military Operations, Families Of Victims Of Atrocities In The Soviet Union Sue Former President Mikhail Gorbachev

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev flanked by two bodyguards. (Wikimedia Commons/duma.gov.ru)

JAKARTA - Relatives of victims of the 1991 Soviet crackdown on Lithuania's pro-independence government have filed a civil lawsuit in Vilnius against former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, 90, claiming he failed to stop military operations.

Lithuania became the first former Soviet Union state to declare independence from Moscow in March 1990. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union officially dissolved in December 1991.

In a January 1991 crackdown, Soviet troops killed 14 civilians, all but one of them during raids on state television headquarters and TV towers, prosecutors said.

A Lithuanian court in 2019 found former Soviet defense minister Dmitry Yazov guilty of war crimes, as well as crimes against humanity for his role in the crackdown. The court sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison.

He is the highest-ranking person on a list of 67 former military officers and military officers, who were sentenced after a three-year trial.

Russia has refused to cooperate with the court, calling it illegal and violating basic principles of justice. Mikhail Gorbachev was not charged and refused to testify.

"The lawsuit aims to hold Gorbachev, the top Soviet Union official, accountable for the January 13 massacre," the six relatives of the civilians who died said in a statement, citing Reuters on January 14.

The lawsuit, the nature and amount of which was not disclosed, was filed on behalf of relatives on the night between Wednesday and Thursday, on the 31st anniversary of the TV tower murder, they said.

"We have provided evidence that the president at that time controlled the army but did not act to prevent premeditated criminal acts, did not stop international crimes while being executed," the statement said.

Their spokesman said the court would now decide the admissibility of the claim.