"To: The Prosecutor of the Lithuanian SSR
"On December 16, 1980, I arrived at the Supreme Court, where at a public session the trial of Vytautas Skuodis, Gintautas Iešmantas, and Povilas Pečeliūnas was taking place. Because there was no room in the courtroom, I stood in the hallway and spoke with one of the witnesses (an operator from a television studio) about his birthplace. We were approached by a tall man wearing a brown suit, who began to yell angrily, demanding to know why I was interrogating people and ordering me to leave. I replied that the trial was open and every citizen had the right to come here and asked him who he was. The man did not reply and summoned several policemen to lead me away. I repeated that the trial was open, and that he had no right to shout at me. The man sternly ordered the lieutenant and the three sergeants to throw me out the door. The policemen twisted my arms, punched me in the back, and pushed me through the door into the street with such force that they broke my watch band. When I demanded that they buy me another watch band, First Lt. Stepanov threatened me: 'If I ever buy you anything, you'll never want anything else.'
"Later I returned into the hallway and sat down and read a newspaper. A man approached me, identified himself as a court employee, and began to shout: 'Get out of here!
You're stinking up the air in here! You bit the police officer's finger!'
" 'Write up a report/ he said to a police sergeant, pointing a finger at me, and again yelled at me,'Get out of here! You're a Lithuanian aren't you? If you're a Lithuanian, then get out of here.' Unable to tolerate the shouting, I promised to leave in fifteen minutes, and I did.
"These incidents were witnessed by various officials and the people present in the hallway: Kęstutis Subačius, [Miss] Danutė Keršiūtė, and others.
"At about 10 a.m. on December 18 as I walked up the steps of the Supreme Court, First Lt. Stepanov approached me and stated: 'You are under arrest for disturbing the public order.' Several policemen rushed up, twisted my arms, pushed me into a vehicle, and drove me to the Vilnius City Lenin District Police Department, where I was held until 6 p.m. Here First Lt. Stepanov told me: 'It's too bad Stalin is no longer around.' At 6 p.m. I was taken to the People's Court of the same district, where Judge Pupkov took fifteen minutes to sentence me to fifteen days for allegedly disturbing the public order and for biting a police officer's finger. I stated that nothing of the sort had happened, but the judge ordered the police to take me away.
"In December my wife received a telephone call from an unknown man who stated that if I continued to interfere where I didn't belong, I would be committed to a psychiatric hospital, possibly for life.
"I protest such unjust treatment. I did not disturb the public order in the Supreme Court Building, as can be witnessed by [Miss] Danutė Keršiūtė, Kęstutis Subačius, Žvirgždys, and others. As for the accusation that I bit a policeman's finger, that is pure fabrication.
"I ask you to investigate First Lt. Stepanov and other officials for abusing their position, which resulted in my being sentenced to fifteen days in prison, and to punish them, as well as overrule as unsubstantiated the charge of disturbing the public order.
Petras Cidzikas"
***
Petras Cidzikas was born in 1944 into a small landowner's family. In 1955 he started to attend the Šeštokai Secondary School. After completing seven grades, he left to study at Kaunas Construction School no. 4. He worked in Panevėžys, and there he was conscripted into the army. When he returned to Kaunas, he earned a secondary school equivalency certificate from Kaunas Secondary School no. 1. Beginning in 1971 he studied law at Vilnius State University. On February 16, 1973, he was arrested and charged with anti-Soviet activities (he gave students issue no. 3 of the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania to read, etc. He was tried in absentia under Article 68, Paragraph 1. He was interrogated by Markevičius and Brilius. Prosecutor Bakučionis conducted the trial). During his interrogation, Cidzikas demanded proof that the facts in the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania were invented and libelous. The psychiatric experts Dr. [Mrs.] Stanionienė and Dr. Demikiuk certified Cidzikas "abnormal" and "schizophrenic" on the evidence that certain punctuation marks and several letters were missing in his notes.
Cidzikas was forcibly "treated" for four years in psychiatric concentration camps in Chernyakhovsk and at the Naujoji Vilnia Republican Psychiatric Hospital, and elsewhere. He had an especially difficult time at the Chernyakhovsk Special Psychiatric Hospital-Prison. The attendants constantly ridiculed him, persecuted him, slandered him to his wife and his parents, forbade him to speak Lithuanian with visiting family members, forbade him to write letters in Lithuanian, etc. (One of the inmates who had previously been held at Oswiecim, Poland, stated that conditions were better there than at Chernyakhovsk.)
Dr. [Mrs.] Bieliunienė and Chief of Staff Glauberzon let slip during a review, "You're healthy, but if you're caught again, you won't be coming here but to prison, and you'll rot there."
Upon his return Cidzikas found a job as a stockman at a store. His persecution continued. Under various pretexts (that someone had stolen and hidden a motorcycle at his home, etc.), the police and the KGB woke him in the middle of the night and tried to blackmail his family members. Dr. Kaunas from the Vilnius Psychiatric Hospital ordered him to check in every month, threatening if he failed to do so to confine him for life in the Naujoji Vilnia Republican Psychiatric Hospital.
On December 18, 1980, he was arrested by the police and sentenced to fifteen days' imprisonment merely for wanting to attend the public trial of Vytautas Skuodis, Povilas Pečeliūnas, and Gintautas Iešmantas.
At 8 a.m. on February 9,1981, the police took Cidzikas from his workplace to the Vilnius City Lenin District Internal Affairs Department to see Director Adomaitis. From there an ambulance (with police escort) took him to the Vilnius Psychiatric Hospital at 5 Vasara St., where he was held until March 2, 1981.
***
On March 2, 1981, a medical commission consisting of Dembinskas, [Miss] Barzdziokaitė, [Miss] Garalavičiūtė, and the attending physician [Mrs.] Rucinskienė questioned Cidzikas, who was forcibly being "treated" at the Vilnius Psychiatric Hospital.
"Why were you put on trial?"
"For distributing issue no. 3 of the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania, for writing poems, and for allegedly wanting to poison all the inhabitants of Moscow (a completely fabricated charge)."
"When you are released, will you engage in any activities?"
Cidzikas replied, "I refuse to answer that question because that is my personal business."
"Why were you sentenced to fifteen days' imprisonment?"
"I was arrested at the Supreme Court Building. The police twisted my arms and threw me into their car, charging that 1 allegedly bit a police otticer's finger.
Security agent Trakimas was observed by people standing near the courtroom door, to have laughed upon hearing this fabricated charge.
"Do you consider yourself sane?"
"Yes. Even psychiatrists, for example Dr. Tamošaitis from Kaunas, admit this."
Following the examination Cidzikas was released that same day. The note excusing him from work (from February 9,1981, to March 2,1981) stated that he had been treated at a dispensary. The diagnosis: a disorder of the central nervous system. It was signed by Dr. Kovaliov, Dr. |Mrs.| Rudzinskienė, and Chief of Staff Kaunas.
***
"To:
The Health Protection Minister of the Lithuanian SSR The Prosecutor of the Lithuanian SSR
"A Statement
"Article 52 of the Constitution of the Lithuanian SSR states that a citizen of the Lithuanian SSR is guaranteed his inviolability. No one may be arrested except by a court decision or prosecutor's authorization.
"The articles of the 1975 Helsinki Conference Final Act grant every person the freedom of conscience and religion and guarantee a person's inviolability. The Helsinki Conference Final Act was signed by the Soviet Union leader Leonid Brezhnev.
"On February 9 of this year, Petras Cidzikas was forcibly, without the prosecutor's authorization, taken by police to the Vilnius City Lenin District Internal Affairs Department to see Director Adomaitis. From there an ambulance (with police escort) took Petras Cidzikas to Ward 1 of the psychiatric hospital (Vilnius, 5 Vasara St.). Without performing any medical tests, Dr. Kaunas, a psychiatrist, signed the transfer. He indicated only one reason for the forcible 'treatment': Cidzikas's actions arouse 'the concern of society.' (What society? And on what basis did Dr. Kaunas make this statement?)
"Petras Cidzikas fell into the KGB's disfavor because of his religious and national convictions. Certain Soviet psychiatrists, obligated by their Hippocratic Oath to let only their conscience and humanitarianism be their guide in their work, are now 'healing' a healthy human being of his convictions.
"Is this not how Nazi doctors'healed' prisoners, thereby incurring the condemnation and punishment of world society and international law?
"We know Petras Cidzikas as a mentally healthy, decent person. This forcible treatment of a sane human being is the greatest crime against society. Therefore, we demand that Petras Cidzikas be immediately released from the psychiatric hospital.
Vilnius, February 14, 1981
(signed) IMiss] Nijolė Sadūnaitė, |Mrs.] Jadvyga Petkevičienė, IMiss] Leonora Sasnauskaitė, Jonas Petkevičius, Kęstutis Subačius, Alfonsas Andriukaitis, IMissl Bernadeta Mališkaitė, [Mrs.] Sofija Nikšienė, I Miss | Ona Kavaliauskaitė, [Miss] Birutė Burauskaitė, iMissI Zita Vanagaitė, [Mrs.] Genutė Sakalienė, [Mrs.] Elena Terleckienė, Jonas Volungevičius, Rimas Matulis, Vytautas Bogušis, Romualdas Ragaišis, Jonas Protusevičius, [Mrs.] Ona Poškienė-Lukauskaitė, Mečislovas Jurevičius, Leonas Laurinskas"
***
"The Catholic Committee for the
Defense of Believers' Rights
February 21, 1981
no. 45
"To: The Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party
"We, the members of the Catholic Committee for the Defense of Believers' Rights, appeal to the Central Committee regarding the fate of Petras Cidzikas (who lives in Vilnius at 7a Dailides St.).
"Eight years ago Petras Cidzikas was forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital while completely healthy and was crippled with unnecessary drug treatments for four years. Because he came to the public trial of Vytautas Skuodis on December 18, 1980, charges were fabricated against him. He is alleged to have bitten a policeman's finger and was sentenced to fifteen days' imprisonment. The Soviet court sentenced him as a healthy individual! It must be noted that such a common-place charge is totally unconvincing. We are well aware on what 'charges' people are sometimes imprisonment merely for handing her fiance flowers! Danutė Keršiūtė, the fiancee of the defendant Povilas Pečeliūnas, was also arrested and sentenced to a week's imprisonment merely for handing her fiancee flowers!
"On February 9 of this year Petras Cizdikas was again committed to the Vilnius psychiatric hospital (5 Vasara St.) and will again be forced to undergo drug treatment for an undetermined period of time. Everyone who knows Petras Cidzikas is unanimous in stating that he is a totally healthy individual. Therefore, his commitment to a psychiatric hospital is seen by all religious believers as an obvious attack against believers, for Cidzikas is a believer.
"Who benefits by this?
Members of the Catholic Committee for the Defense of Believers' Rights:
Rev. Leonas Kalinauskas, Rev. Jonas Kauneckas, Rev. Vaclovas Stakėnas, Rev. Sigitas Tamkevičius, Rev. Algimantas Keina, Prof. Vytautas Skuodis (in a labor camp), Rev. Alfonsas Svarinskas, Rev. Vincas Vėlavičius"
***
A protest regarding the detention of Petras Cidzikas in a psychiatric hospital was also written by the Lithuanian Helsinki Watch Group. It was signed by (Mrs.] Ona Lukauskaitė-Poškienė, Father B. Laurinavičius, Mečislovas Jurevičius, and Vytautas Vaičiūnas.
