{"id":145447,"date":"2025-07-05T22:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"jailed-lawyer-asks-lithuanian-president-to-swap-him-for-belarus-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/","title":{"rendered":"Jailed lawyer asks Lithuanian president to swap him for Belarus\u2019 prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>July 5, <em>Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> Mantas Danielius, a lawyer convicted in Lithuania of spying for Belarus, petitioned the country&#8217;s President Gitanas Naus\u0117da and the State Security Department (VSD) to exchange him for Belarusian political prisoners, the <em>ELTA<\/em> news agency has reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the authorities recommended that he contact the justice ministry instead, as it resolves such issues within its competence, according to Danielius&#8217; letter to the agency&#8217;s journalist, cited by <em>tv3.lt<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The president&#8217;s office replied that it had reviewed the &#8220;information provided,&#8221; Danielius said. He added that the VSD was more cooperative, forwarding his request to the Prison Service. The service, in turn, detailed the possibility of serving his sentence in Belarus but did not elaborate on any swap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danielius wants to go to Belarus \u2013 \u201cnot to prison, but to freedom\u201d \u2013 in exchange for Lithuanian nationals convicted there of spying for Vilnius or \u201ca large group of \u015aviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja&#8217;s supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On September 20, 2024, we reported that the Vilnius District Court sentenced Danielius to nine years in prison after finding him guilty of spying for Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He refused to testify in court and said in his closing statement that \u201cvoluntary gathering of information\u201d was not espionage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danielius admitted that he cooperated with <em>Belarus 1<\/em> propagandist Ksienija Lebiedzieva, but said the investigators failed to prove her connections with a spy agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"insert-block\">\n\n    <div class=\"insert-block__img\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"354\" height=\"236\" src=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ST_mid_litvy_press-354x236.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ST_mid_litvy_press-354x236.jpeg 354w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ST_mid_litvy_press-734x490.jpeg 734w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ST_mid_litvy_press-178x118.jpeg 178w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ST_mid_litvy_press-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ST_mid_litvy_press.jpeg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px\" \/>                        <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> \u041f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430<\/label>\n\n                <\/div>\n    <div class=\"insert-block__text\">\n                    <label class=\"insert-block__tag\">\u041f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430<\/label>\n                <h3 class=\"insert-block__title\">Lithuania\u2019s top diplomat calls for release of jailed Belarusian dissidents<\/h3>\n        <div class=\"insert-block__descr\">July 2, Pozirk. Lithuanian Foreign Minister K\u0119stutis Budrys has met Belarusian opposition leader \u015aviat\u0142ana Cichano\u016dskaja and her dissident husband Siarhiej Cichano\u016dski, recently released from a Belarusian prison, reaffirming his country&#039;s support for Belarus\u2019 fight for freedom. A free and democratic &#8230;<\/div>\n        <a class=\"insert-block__btn-block\" href=\"\/en\/news\/144965\">\n            <button class=\"btn\">\n                <div class='btn__text'>Read the article<\/div>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July 5, Pozirk. Mantas Danielius, a lawyer convicted in Lithuania of spying for Belarus, petitioned the country&#8217;s President Gitanas Naus\u0117da and the State Security Department (VSD) to exchange him for Belarusian political prisoners, the ELTA news agency has reported. However, the authorities recommended that he contact the justice ministry instead, as it resolves such issues [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":100129,"template":"","rubric":[14],"class_list":["post-145447","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jailed lawyer asks Lithuanian president to swap him for Belarus\u2019 prisoners | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"July 5, Pozirk. Mantas Danielius, a lawyer convicted in Lithuania of spying for Belarus, petitioned the country&#039;s President Gitanas Naus\u0117da and the State\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jailed lawyer asks Lithuanian president to swap him for Belarus\u2019 prisoners | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"July 5, Pozirk. Mantas Danielius, a lawyer convicted in Lithuania of spying for Belarus, petitioned the country&#039;s President Gitanas Naus\u0117da and the State\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/danelius_facebook.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/\"},\"headline\":\"Jailed lawyer asks Lithuanian president to swap him for Belarus\u2019 prisoners\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-05T19:53:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/\"},\"wordCount\":233,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/danelius_facebook.jpeg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/\",\"name\":\"Jailed lawyer asks Lithuanian president to swap him for Belarus\u2019 prisoners | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/145447\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/danelius_facebook.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-05T19:53:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"July 5, Pozirk. 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