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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRM

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1998

ATTORNEY GENERAL COMMENDS LITHUANIAN DECISION TO

PROSECUTE FORMER U.S. CITIZEN FOR WORLD WAR II GENOCIDE

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Attorney General Janet Reno today


applauded the decision of the Government of Lithuania to indict and
prosecute accused Nazi criminal Aleksandras Lileikis, who had fled
to Lithuania in 1996 after a federal court ordered his
denaturalization.

On Friday, Lithuanian authorities forwarded genocide charges


against the former Massachusetts resident to the district court in
Vilnius, initiating the first prosecution for World War II crimes
in any of the successor states to the former Soviet Union, where
nearly one million Jews were murdered during the war.

Lileikis, wartime Chief of the notorious Lithuanian Security


Police ("Saugumas" in Lithuanian) in Nazi-occupied Vilnius
Province, was stripped of his U.S. citizenship by court order in
1996 in a denaturalization suit prosecuted by the Criminal
Division's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and the United
States Attorney's Office in Boston. Lithuanian officials have said
that hearings could began in four to six weeks.

"We applaud the Lithuanian General Procuracy's landmark


decision to prosecute Lileikis," the Attorney General said today.
She added, "It is vital that the nations of the world leave no
stone unturned in pursuing justice on behalf of the millions of
victims of Nazi genocide."

Lileikis, who had been residing in Norwood, Massachusetts,


was denaturalized by court order in May 1996 after Government
prosecutors presented captured Nazi documents and other evidence
found by OSI investigators proving that he had personally signed
orders consigning Jewish men, women and children to death by
gunfire at execution pits in the wooded hamlet of Paneriai, several
kilometers from Vilnius city.

The evidence included death warrants signed by Lileikis, among


them one for a six-year-old girl, Fruma Kaplan, and her mother,
Gitta. In his May 24, 1996 judgment, Federal District Court Judge
Richard Stearns found that "tens of thousands" of Jews "died under
his [Lileikis'] command of the Saugumas." The court confirmed that
the Saugumas contributed to the slaughter by enforcing the mass
confinement of Jews, capturing those who sought to escape, and
delivering Jews to their executioners.

In the U.S. proceedings, Lileikis admitted serving as Chief


of the Saugumas, but characterized himself as "a disembodied issuer
of orders" -- a claim that led Judge Stearns to write that Lileikis
"is attempting to stand the classic Nuremberg defense ["just
following orders"] on its head."

In June 1996, Lileikis fled to Lithuania rather than remain in


the United States to appeal or to contest a prospective deportation
action. In 1996, OSI also secured the denaturalization of
Lileikis' deputy, Kazys Gimzauskas. Like Lileikis, Gimzauskas fled
to Lithuania, where he currently resides. OSI has also obtained
the denaturalization of Algimantas Dailide, a former Saugumas
officer living in the Cleveland area, and is currently seeking the
denaturalization of Adolph Milius, another former Saugumas officer,
now residing as a U.S. citizen in Lithuania.

OSI Director Eli M. Rosenbaum noted that the denaturalization


actions in the United States and the indictment of Lileikis in
Lithuania were greatly aided by the spirit of cooperation shown by
the officials from both countries. He praised the Lithuanian
Government for facilitating access to its archives by U.S.
Government investigators and acknowledged the "outstanding"
investigative assistance authorities in Vilnius had provided in
"numerous cases" investigated by OSI.

To date, OSI has secured the denaturalization of 60 Nazi


participants in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution and has obtained
the removal of 48 of them from the United States.

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