Egle Kusaite: I confessed of preparing terror act in exchange for Magmadovs' lives

Egle Kusaite, a young Lithuanian woman, accused of creating a group for committing a terror act on some military object in Russia, said that she had given confessional evidences in exchange for promises that her friends from near Moscow - Chechen Aishat and Apti Magmadov - would be left alive. Egle told about it to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent during a meeting in Vilnius.

Ms Kusaite is suspected of preparing terror acts on the military base in Russia. In Lithuania, she was detained in the end of last year. She asserts that Lithuanian and Russian law enforcement officers beat her during detention. The 21-year-old woman claims that some psychotropic drugs were injected into her veins. At the trial she refused from her earlier words about planned attacks. In August, Egle was released. Currently, the Lithuanian General Prosecutor's Office should clarify whether the suspect of terrorists Egle Kusaite was exposed psychological and physical pressure. This was decided on October 5 by the Vilnius Regional Court.

Let us remind you that in September Tamara Magmadova, a native of Chechnya, who is now living with her family in the Ramenskoe District near Moscow, sent open appeals to the public human rights organizations asking for help in releasing her children, who were arrested by special agents of the FSB on January 19 this year. Her children Apti and Aishat, who were detained in that special operation, are in custody, and recently it was prolonged.

"I was arrested on October 24, 2009," said Egle Kusaite. "They accuse me of creating a group for committing a terror act. I was arrested in Lithuania, when I was going by bus to my girlfriend Aishat Magmadova, who lives near Moscow. Four state security agents entered the bus; without any explanations they took away my mobile phone. They presented no IDs; I didn't know then that they were security agents. They told me that I was accused of bringing drugs to Moscow."

"They took me into the station building in Kaunas for search. The process of searching was videoed. They confiscated the gifts that I was carrying to the Magmadovs - perfume, a shawl and sweets. Then I was placed into an isolation facility, where I was kept for 13 days," said Kusaite.

"When I was placed in custody, a state advocate was appointed to me. On the first day, October 24, 2009, state security officers who did not introduce themselves came into my cell. I thought that they were people from our Muslim community, since I recognized one of them. He participated in prayer meetings and visited our prayer house," she said. 

One of them gave Egle two Kinder Penguin candies; and she ate one of them. "On that night I began vomiting with blood and felt very bad; I thought that I'd die," she said. "They tried to poison me; I didn't eat the second candy - probably, this saved me."

She said in her conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that on October 24, 2009, in the first evening of her detention, local policemen beat her.

"In the morning on October 25, 2009, agents from the KGB (State Security Committee) of Lithuania appeared. By their reaction I saw that they were surprised to see me alive. Then, they asked me to sign some confession. Otherwise, as they said, the information at their disposal will be transferred to Russia; and Apti and Aishat Magmadov would be tortured or even killed. Initially they demanded that I confess that I was going to blow up civilians. When I refused to admit it, they started demanding that I confess that I was going to blow up militaries," said Egle.

According to her story, one of the agents was the then head of the counter-terrorism branch of the Lithuanian State Security Department. "Later he was promoted to a higher post. The whole day on October 25 they demanded my confessions; finally, I said that I'd do it," Egle recalls. "I did it hoping that they'd leave the Magmadovs in peace."

"The indictment was in 62 pages. It was composed entirely of our conversations with Aishat - phone calls, SMS messages and e-mails, some were compiled from different periods - since 2007," said Egle.

According to the Lithuanian lawyer Keshtutis Kvainauskas, who is running the Magmadovs' case in Lithuania, now Apti and Aishat Magmadov are accused of the same as Egle Kusaite. "The criminal case against the Magmadovs was initiated on the basis of the information provided by Lithuania," said the lawyer. "If the court in Lithuania finds Egle Kusaite guilty, then, the position of the Russian Prosecutor's Office in the Magmadovs' case will get stronger; but if Kusaite's case turns differently, and she'll be acquitted, then, the Magmadovs' case in Russia will look strange."

According to Mr Kvainauskas, the Lithuanian Court of Appeal has already expressed doubts about the guilt and the legality of the proceedings against Kusaite, when it was decided to release Egle from custody.

See earlier reports: "Chelysheva: police has fabricated links between Egle Kusaite, Magmadovs and Gataevs", "Lithuanian court extends arrest of woman from Klaipeda suspected of terrorism," "Relatives of Egle Kusaite believe that she confessed of terrorism under pressure."