Suspects linked to Vilnius assault on Navalny ally Volkov arrested in Poland | EUROtoday

Issued on: 19/04/2024 – 18:01

1 min

Volkov — a detailed ally of late Russian opposition determine Alexei Navalny — was briefly admitted to hospital after he was repeatedly struck with a hammer outdoors his dwelling in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius in mid-March.

On Friday, officers in Poland and Lithuania mentioned {that a} Belarusian man who organised the assault and the 2 Polish assailants had been arrested in Poland.

“A Belarusian working for the Russians, who ordered two Poles to carry out the attack against the Navalny ally has been arrested”, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X, previously Twitter.

“The assailants have already been detained,” Tusk wrote, including that they have been allegedly “linked to radical hooligan circles”, however with out offering different particulars.

Lithuania President Gitanas Nauseda mentioned that “two people suspected of having attacked the head of Russia opposition Leonid Volkov were detained in Poland”.

Read extraTop Navalny ally Volkov says ‘very clear’ assault on him was ordered by Kremlin

Vilnius’s prosecutor, Justas Laucius, mentioned that “the suspects were detained on April 3 in Poland, in Warsaw”, including that the suspects have been Polish residents and that Volkov was attacked “because of his political activities and opinions”.

The deputy head of Lithuania’s prison police, Saulius Briginas, mentioned that the suspects have been recognized to Polish police and that throughout the arrests, “five searches were carried out, which allowed the seizure of objects and proof necessary for the investigation”.

The assault on Volkov got here nearly a month after Navalny’s dying in an Arctic jail, which Volkov blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Lithuania hosts many Russian and Belarusian opposition activists.

(AFP)