Golovatov case shows Old Europe's duplicity

Austria on Friday released the former KGB officer Michail Golovatov despite the international warrant for his arrest. He is accused of being responsible for the events on so-called "bloody Sunday" in January 1991 in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. The Estonian portal Delfi is disgusted with Austria's behaviour: "The justification by the Austrian authorities demonstrates all too clearly the duplicity of certain parts of so-called Old Europe when it comes to criminals of totalitarian regimes. Old men who are former SS members and murdered western European Jews are dragged into court while the members of special units that killed unarmed civilians in Eastern Europe are handled with kid gloves. In the European jurisdiction, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. But in this case the Austrian Ministry of Justice had the temerity to ignore the judicial system of another EU member state by releasing a wanted man with the justification that the arrest warrant issued by Lithuania was inadequate. This is an unprecedented occurrence and outrageous behaviour."

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