English

Lithuania to reply soon to Belarus' request for information over toy drop flight

The Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office will provide a reply "in the near future" to Belarus' request for information about the invasion of its airspace by a foreign plane this past summer, Deputy Prosecutor General Darius Raulusaitis told reporters on November 27.

"It will reply what it should reply in compliance with its international commitments and the agreement for legal assistance with Belarus," the news agency BNS quoted Mr. Raulusaitis as saying.

On July 4, a single-engine plane piloted by representatives of Sweden’s public relations agency Studio Total invaded Belarus’ airspace from Lithuania and dropped hundreds of teddy bears with "pro-free speech" signs on the town of Ivyanets and Minsk before flying back to the Baltic country unhindered.

In August, the Belarusian authorities asked Lithuania and Sweden to help them investigate the incident.

The official said that it had taken the Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office so long to prepare the reply because of the need to "gather material."

Mr. Raulusaitis declined to speak about the content of the reply. "No comment is made on such things normally as it is investigation-related information," he explained.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Rasa Jukneviciene said on August 9 that Lithuania had no information about the incident, and that Belarus' request for legal assistance would be considered in accordance with national regulations.

"The airspace was not violated, that's for sure," Ms. Jukneviciene said. "Small private aircraft constantly fly in Lithuania, they were flying at that time, but no airspace violations were detected."

On the same day, Alyaksandr Lukashenka warned that Lithuania should not "sit like mice under the broom" over the incident. "They should tell us why they provided their territory for the violation of the state border," he said. "To Lithuania, if anyone, the response won’t seem to be soft." //BelaPAN