{"id":543947,"date":"2026-05-20T17:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=543947"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:49:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T16:49:22","slug":"lithuanian-court-rejects-danelius-request-for-spy-exchange-with-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/lithuanian-court-rejects-danelius-request-for-spy-exchange-with-belarus","title":{"rendered":"Lithuanian Court Rejects Danelius Request for Spy Exchange With Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Lithuanian citizen <strong><b>Mantas Danelius<\/b><\/strong>, convicted of spying for Belarus, <a href=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/lithuanian-citizen-convicted-of-spying-for-belarus-sues-nauseda\">filed a complaint with a Lithuanian court<\/a> demanding the initiation of a \u201cspy exchange\u201d with Belarus. On May 20, the Regional Administrative Court rejected Danelius\u2019s complaint, the court\u2019s press service <a href=\"https:\/\/administracinis.teismas.lt\/naujienos\/teismas-atmete-nuteistojo-uz-snipinejima-skunda-del-snipu-mainu-inicijavimo\/2206\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In May last year, Danelius appealed to the Lithuanian president and the presidential office requesting that his exchange for Lithuanian citizens imprisoned in Belarus be initiated. The presidential office replied that it had reviewed his requests.<\/p>\n<p>In his complaint to the court, Danelius demanded that the presidential office\u2019s letter be annulled, that his exchange be initiated and that he be awarded \u20ac100,000 in compensation for moral damages.<\/p>\n<p>The court reviewed the case materials and concluded that the presidential office\u2019s reply was informational in nature and did not produce legal consequences. The demand to revoke the letter was deemed unfounded.<\/p>\n<p>The court also noted that neither administrative courts nor the presidential office have the authority to initiate \u201cspy exchanges\u201d. Decisions on pardons or exchanges may be made by the president of Lithuania.<\/p>\n<p>Danelius\u2019s claim for compensation was also rejected.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2024, the Vilnius Regional Court sentenced Vilnius-based lawyer Mantas Danelius to nine years in prison on charges of spying for Belarus.<\/p>\n<p>According to the prosecution, since 2022 Danelius had collected information for Belarusian intelligence services about Belarusian activists in Lithuania and passed it to propagandist <b>Ksenia Lebedzeva<\/b>. Prosecutors stated that Lebedzeva was particularly interested in Belarusian organisations in Lithuania, activists, methods of entering Lithuania, information on people who helped them leave Belarus, training of volunteers from The Kalinouski Regiment, weapons and supply chains. Danelius gained the trust of Belarusian organisations by offering legal assistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lithuanian citizen Mantas Danelius, convicted of spying for Belarus, filed a complaint with a Lithuanian court demanding the initiation of a \u201cspy exchange\u201d with Belarus. On May 20, the Regional Administrative Court rejected Danelius\u2019s complaint, the court\u2019s press service reported. In May last year, Danelius appealed to the Lithuanian president and the presidential office requesting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":534869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6a0de61544287.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Lithuanian Court Rejects Danelius Request for Spy Exchange With Belarus"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143284,143127,143090],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-543947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","category-society","category-politics"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}