A criminal hearing is set for August 26, 2026. Lithuania is prosecuting a Jewish citizen over Facebook speech while the state historical institution now assigned to review Holocaust exhibitions still has an unanswered Facebook record of its own.

A Vilnius court hears the criminal case against Artur Fridman on August 26, 2026. The charge concerns a Facebook post. On November 16, 2015, the institutional Facebook account of Lithuania’s Genocide and Resistance Research Centre — LGGRTC — published a sentence about “certain Jews.” Fifteen Lithuanians demanded an apology or a public disavowal within weeks. I have located neither. Lithuania has now given that same institution the principal role in reviewing Holocaust exhibitions in its municipal museums.

Fridman is a Jewish citizen of Lithuania. Prosecutor Kristina Minko signed the indictment under Articles 170² §1 and 313 §2 in a prosecution file running to 220 pages after Fridman criticized the state-honored partisan Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas on Facebook. Lithuania can identify a speaker, preserve a post, restrict his movement and bring him to criminal court.

The sentence Lithuania has not answered

LGGRTC’s 2015 statement was issued in the controversy over Jonas Noreika, the state-honored official whose own historical record includes the August 22, 1941 order directing Jews of the Šiauliai district into the Žagarė ghetto. The Centre’s institutional Facebook account wrote:

The denigration of Lithuanian patriots is organized by neighbors from the East. They are assisted not only by certain Jews, but also by quite a few Lithuanians: their surnames are written beneath........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)