On August 8 and 11, 1980, in Vilnius, the Lithuanian SSR Supreme Court examined the case of Dr. Algirdas Statkevičius, a member of the Lithuanian Helsinki Watch Group. It was an open trial, but no one, other than his wife, security police, and witnesses, was allowed into the courtroom. He was tried in absentia. When people tried to enter the courtroom, the security agent standing at the door wearing a red armband explained that they could not enter because no one was available to take responsibility for admitting them, and he himself knew nothing. Later, when the security agent in charge arrived, he stated that the courtroom was full, though the room was half-empty, and refused to admit anyone. No one was admitted even for the court's ruling. Those who attempted to show that the security agents were wrong in acting this way were intimidated in various ways and threatened. The police arrived, and the people were forced to disperse. The young people who had assembled withdrew a short distance from the doors into the corridor and quietly said the rosary, asking that all be strengthened in love and the executioners-judges be forgiven because they didn't now what they were doing.
The Supreme Court's ruling: forcible commitment of Dr. Algirdas Statkevičius to a special psychiatric hospital. Currently he is at the Chernyakhovsk Special Psychiatric Hospital Prison.
