Petras Raslanas

Who is Petras Raslanas?

Petras Raslanas is a revolutionary active during the Second World War.

Raslanas, a Lithuanian, joined the Komsomol in 1931 and the Communist Party of Lithuania in 1938 following which he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment by the Lithuanian government for revolutionary activity. After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940 he became head of the NKVD in Telšiai and is claimed to be responsible for the Rainiai massacre. He since had high positions in the Soviet Union, and was an official in the Soviet Ministry of Religious Affairs.

In 2001 he was convicted of genocide by Šiauliai Area Court in Lithuania in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, he still lives as a free man in Russia as Russian authorities have denied requests for extradition.