A criminal case was opened against a Lithuanian language teacher from Vilnius Astra-Genovaite Astrauskaitė about calls for a military coup after she organized an antiquated rally in front of the parliament building. This is reported by the portal Delfi with reference to the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
Astrauskaite staged a protest against new sanitary restrictions due to the pandemic on Saturday, October 16. It was attended by about 150 people. At the same time, as stated in the statement of the state prosecution, the woman publicly called upon the audience for a coup d’etat with arms in hand.
“Anyone who publicly calls for the violent (…) overthrow of the legitimate government of the Republic of Lithuania, change of its constitutional order (…) is threatened with imprisonment for up to five years,” the ministry said in a statement.
As the portal notes, Astrauskaite has already come to the attention of law enforcement officers after she organized a protest that escalated into riots in the center of Vilnius on August 10. Then the protesters tried to block the building of the Diet and attack the deputies, the police used a tear. The demonstrators fought back with stones, pyrotechnics and even explosives, but they were dispersed.