Audrius Butkevičius

Audrius Butkevičius     (politician, spook?)
Born	24 September 1960 Kaunas, Lithuania
Nationality	Lithuanian
Member of	Institute for Statecraft
Lithuanian politician and fellow of the Institute for Statecraft

Gene Sharp

In March 1990 Lithuanians declared their independence, a full eighteen months prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Materials and input from the Albert Einstein Institution assisted Baltic leaders in their struggle. Holding up a copy of Gene Sharp’s Civilian-Based Defense, Director General of the Lithuanian Department of National Defense Director, General Butkevicius, who directed his country’s "people power" defense against an attempted Soviet coup in January 1991, declared:

“If I had to choose between the atom bomb and Dr. Sharp’s book, I would choose this book.”
Audrius Butkevičius (1991) 

Career

In 2007, he was elected to Vilnius City Council.

In 2015, he was a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Statecraft.

Fraud conviction

In the late 1990s, Butkevičius was under the suspicion of fraud. On 12 August 1997 he was apprehended by the Lithuanian secret service agents in a hotel lobby while accepting 15,000 US dollars. After a brief explanation, he was permitted to leave. On 14 August criminal proceedings were instituted against him. He was eventually arrested on 28 October, whereupon he was imprisoned and sentenced to five and a half years in jail. He was released on 20 March 2000.

Subsequently, he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. He stated that his detention was unlawful and that Articles 5 and 6 were breached. The court agreed and ordered that Lithuania pay Butkevičius compensation.

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:The Global Drugs Meta-Group	article	October 2005	Peter Dale Scott

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