Paleckis was previously acquitted of defaming Lithuania’s post-Second World War partisans by Kaunas District Court. However, Kaunas Regional Court has satisfied prosecutors’ complaint and ruled that he deliberately belittled partisans while already in prison.
Paleckis was given a custodial sentence of 1 year 10 months and 18 days.
However, he was acquitted of defaming MP Laurynas Kasčiūnas. The court ruled that politicians and other public figures should be more tolerant of harsher criticism even if it is unjustified.
Paleckis made the statements in question over the phone from prison in September 2022 and they were published on a social media channel and on YouTube. He claimed that 25,000 civilians, of them 1,000 babies, died because of partisans. Yet prosecutors pointed out that these false figures came from KGB officers before 1990 and not from historians. He also claimed that armed resistance against the Soviet Union was inspired by the USA and caused damage to Lithuania.
Speaking to Audrius Nakas over the phone, Paleckis stated that the Seimas Committee of National Security of Defence led by Kasčiūnas at the time was "a Nazi committee".
Paleckis is already serving a custodial sentence for attempting to spy for Russia. Together with Deimantas Bertauskas he was gathering information relevant to Russian intelligence agencies about law enforcement officers and judges working on the 13 January 1991 case and other cases related to Russia’s aggression against Lithuania in 1990-1991.
In 2012, he was convicted of denying the Soviet aggression against Lithuania that occurred on 13 January 1991 and had to pay a fine.
He had also led the Good Neighbourhood Forum, an organisation that was recognised to be unlawful and acting against Lithuania, and was closed as a result.