VILNIUS, December 5 - RAPSI. Socialist People's Front party leader Algirdas Paleckis, who was earlier found guilty of denying Soviet aggression against Lithuania, has asked Judicial Council Chairman Gintaras Kryzevicius and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite to guarantee the courts independence during the consideration of his appeal and the imposing of a fine against a witness in his case for perjury.

The Supreme Court will hear the appeal on December 11.

Paleckis was the first person in Lithuanian history to be charged with denying Soviet aggression, a crime stipulated in the Criminal Code. In a radio interview, he discussed a tragic event at a TV tower in Vilnius on January 13, 1991 when "brothers shot at brothers." The prosecutor's office demanded to place Paleckis on one-year probation for the statement, but he was later acquitted.

A Vilnius district court later ruled that Paleckis had been groundlessly acquitted and fined him after considering the appeal submitted by the prosecutors.

"I request the guarantee of a just, unpoliticized court in my case and in the case of witnesses," he said. "Attempts are being made to turn Lithuania into a police state under my case, which will punish anyone for voicing their opinion and violate the freedom of speech. The same goes for the the case against the witness. These people are recounting what they saw in early hours of January 13." He said the rulings create a dangerous precedent for human rights violations.

Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990. However, the Soviet Union called the move illegal and imposed an economic blockade on the country between April and late June 1990. In January 1991, a series of unauthorized protests swept across Lithuania, which resulted in special Soviet troops entering the republic. On the night of January 13, a convoy of Soviet armored vehicles entered the center of Vilnius.

The troops clashed with civilians at a local TV tower. Fourteen people were killed and over 600 were injured as a result of the bloodshed.

One Soviet paratrooper was killed by friendly fire.