(JTA)
-- A Lithuanian court has ruled that a swastika is part
of the country's historic legacy and not a Nazi symbol.
The May 19 ruling capped a three-month case involving four men who displayed
swastikas at Klaipeda's national independence parade.
“It is not a Nazi attribute,
but a valuable symbol of the Baltic culture, an ancient
sign of our ancestors, which had been stolen from them
and treacherously used by other peoples,” one of the
defense witnesses said, according to RT, Russia's English
news channel.
Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal
Center's chief Nazi hunter and Israel director, called
the decision “outrageous” and likely to lead to a tremendous
increase in the use of Nazi symbols by Lithuania’s ultranationalists.
“Allowing the use of swastikas
sends a clear message to those local residents harshly
victimized by the Nazis that they are no longer welcome
in their country of birth,” he said. Lithuanian judges
are “again” showing bias in favor of Holocaust perpetrators
rather than victims.
“We urge the Lithuanian courts
to overturn this outrageous and contemptible decision
as quickly as possible,” Zuroff said.
Swastikas previously have
been displayed in Lithuania on May Day, and once in front
of the presidential palace in the Lithuanian capital
Vilnius, according to news reports. Neither instance
prompted police or legal action.
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