During the hearing of Žemaitaitis' criminal case at the Vilnius Regional Court on Tuesday, the defendant continued to give evidence.
The Member of Parliament, who is on trial for allegedly making anti-Semitic statements, repeated that his comments and statements were not directed against Jews. Žemaitaitis pointed out that he was talking about Israel's violence against Palestinians, wanting to convey the idea that the entire Jewish people could later be blamed for such actions by the state.
„A nation cannot be held responsible for the crimes of a few barbarians,“ said Žemaitaitis about his criticism of Israel.
Susiję straipsniai
The politician emphasised that he did not deny the Holocaust when writing about the massacres of Lithuanians on Facebook. Žemaitaitis claimed that he only wanted to emphasise that not only Jews, but also other nations, such as Lithuanians and Palestinians, had experienced cruelty.
„Hitler exterminated the Jews; Stalin exterminated the Lithuanians. (...) I said that all nations can experience something as terrible as the Holocaust. Today, Palestine is experiencing the Holocaust,“ explained Žemaitaitis.
For his part, the defendant emphasised that his statements on social media had not been refuted.
„If information has not been refuted, it is true,“ the politician explained.
Responding to questions from prosecutor Justas Laucius in court, Žemaitaitis emphasised that his comments, for which he was charged, were simply intended to draw public attention to Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip and the cruelty directed against the Palestinians.
„My goal was to draw attention to the fact that another war crime was being committed. My goal was to show that we cannot disregard what is happening in the world,“ explained the defendant.
The prosecution believes that the politician trivialised genocide
According to the criminal case being heard by the Vilnius Regional Court, the charges against Žemaitaitis are based on his posts on Facebook and statements made in parliament.
Furthermore, according to law enforcement, while serving as a member of the Seimas, Žemaitaitis commented on Facebook on the news that Israeli forces had demolished a Palestinian school, possibly disparaging people of Jewish ethnicity and using anti-Semitic statements.
„It turns out that, besides Putin, another animal has appeared in the world – ISRAEL. One destroys schools with tanks, the other with tractors! (...) After such events, it is no wonder that statements such as the following are made: The Jew climbed up the ladder and fell accidentally. Take a stick, children, and kill that Jew,“ Žemaitaitis wrote on Facebook.
According to the indictment, Žemaitaitis, while a member of the Seimas, publicly disseminated the idea of normalising anti-Semitism against persons of Jewish nationality in a speech delivered during a plenary session of the Seimas, thereby disparaging and inciting hatred towards a group of people and individuals belonging to that group based on their nationality.
The prosecutor's office claims that member of Seimas Žemaitaitis is also accused of publicly and grossly disparaging the genocide of Jews (the Holocaust) committed by Nazi Germany in Lithuania in his posts on the social network Facebook, published on 13, 14 and 15 June 2023. 13, 14 and 15 June 2023, he publicly and grossly belittled the genocide of Jews (the Holocaust) committed by Nazi Germany in the territory of Lithuania in a derogatory and insulting manner.
Prosecutor Justas Laucius previously stated in court that Žemaitaitis indicated in one of his Facebook posts that person of Jewish nationality contributed to the massacre of Lithuanians. According to the state prosecutor, the politician posted on social media that the killings in the village of Pirčiupiai was carried out not by the Nazis, but by Jews.
The Pirčiupiai massacre took place on 3 June 1944, when Nazi occupiers burned 119 residents of the village of Pirčiupiai alive. After a Red Army unit carrying out diversionary tasks killed six German soldiers, Nazi soldiers, reacting to these actions, surrounded part of the village of Pirčiupiai and herded all the people who were there at the time – 69 children, 29 women and 21 men – into several residential houses and barns and burned them alive.
According to the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Centre, the Nazi occupiers often responded to attacks against the Nazi German army and police by massacring innocent civilians to deter Soviet partisans and saboteurs from similar actions.
In April 2024, the Constitutional Court ruled that Žemaitaitis, then a member of the Seimas, had broken his oath as a member of the Seimas and grossly violated the Constitution with his anti-Semitic statements. Following the KT's ruling, Žemaitaitis resigned from his seat in the Seimas, but in the autumn he stood for election to the Seimas and was re-elected.
The participation of the party led by Žemaitaitis, Nemuno Aušra, in the ruling coalition was met with international criticism from Poland, Germany and the United States.