Law & order

Lithuania opens trial of ex-Soviet military officers over 1991 killings

A trial opened in Lithuania on Wednesday against dozens of former Soviet military officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in a 1991 crackdown against the Baltic state's pro-independence movement.

Russia has refused to cooperate with the investigation and most of the accused, who live outside Lithuania, will stay away from the trial, which coincides with heightened tensions between Moscow and Vilnius over the Ukraine crisis.

Fourteen civilians were killed by the Soviet army in January 1991, prosecutors say, all but one of them during the storming of the state television headquarters and TV tower by Soviet paratroopers. More than 700 others were wounded.