Two suspects detained in Poland over attack on Navalny aide Leonid Volkov in Lithuania
Follow UsStory highlights
Lithuanian counterintelligence said at the time that the attack was the work of Russian special services.
Two people have been detained in Poland on suspicion of attacking Leonid Volkov, an exiled top aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Polish and Lithuanian police said on Friday.
Volkov suffered injuries from hammer blows in the attack on March 12 outside his home in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.
Lithuanian counterintelligence said at the time that the attack was the work of Russian special services. The Kremlin declined to comment.
Polish police said on the social media platform X that they had arrested the two suspects in cooperation with Lithuanian police in response to a European arrest warrant.
Separately, the deputy head of Lithuania's criminal police, Saulius Briginas, told a press conference in Vilnius that the suspects were both Polish citizens and had been detained on April 3 in Warsaw.
The two suspects have been charged in Lithuania with intentionally causing minor bodily harm to Volkov because of his beliefs, which is punishable by a fine or a jail term, chief Vilnius prosecutor Justas Laucius said.
"At this time, the charge is that the crime was committed due to (Volkov's) beliefs and his political activities", Laucius told the same news conference in Vilnius.
The suspects could be extradited to Lithuania by May, Laucius added.
SUSPECTS KNOWN TO POLICE
The two suspects were previously known to Polish police and had travelled to Lithuania to carry out the assault, said Briginas.
Laucius said he did not know whether the detainees were connected to a Polish citizen who was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of planning to cooperate with Russian foreign intelligence services for a possible assassination attempt on Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Polish police had no further comment on the arrests. The office of Poland's minister in charge of special services did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.
Also Read | US 'not involved in any offensive operation' after Israel carries retaliatory attacks against Iran
Volkov himself has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the attack. Before the assault he had told Reuters that leaders of Navalny's movement in exile feared for their lives.
On Friday, Volkov thanked Lithuanian police for working "energetically and persistently" on the case.
"I am very glad that this work has been effective", he said on X. "Well, we'll find out the details soon. Can't wait to find out!"
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda thanked Poland and Lithuania's intelligence service for securing the arrests.
Navalny, Putin's most prominent critic, died in February in an Arctic prison. Russian authorities say he died of natural causes. His followers believe he was killed by the authorities, which the Kremlin denies.