MOSCOW -- A Lithuanian priest convicted of anti-Soviet activities was sentenced to six years in jail and four years internal exile, according to a Lithuanian newspaper that arrived Monday in the capital.
The Roman Catholic priest, Sigitus Tamkiavicius, 45, was found guilty of violating the Soviet penal code's Article 70, which encompasses anti-Soviet activities such as propaganda and slandering the state.
His conviction was reported by Tass Friday with no mention of a penalty.
Saturday's edition of the Sovetskaya Litva newspaper, or Soviet Lithuania, said Tamkiavicius had been ordered to serve six years in jail and four in internal exile. The paper arrived Monday in Moscow.
He was the second priest jailed this year. The first, Alfonsas Svarinskas, was sentenced for similar crimes last May to seven years in prison -- the maximum sentence -- and five years of internal exile.
Tamkiavicius was tried in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, known as the most Catholic of the 15 Soviet republics.
Tass said Tamkiavicius 'for a long time indoctrinated believers in the anti-state spirit and crudely violated Soviet laws.'
He was accused of using church funds 'for secretly producing and spreading materials of anti-state character and turning them over to subversive organizations in the territory of a number of capitalist countries.'
The priest was one of five founding members of the Catholic Committee for the Defense of Believers' Rights.
Tass said of his conviction that the court acted correctly, 'considering the malicious and premeditated character of the unlawful actions of the defendant.'
Svarinskas and Tamkiavicius were the first priests to be tried in the Soviet Union since 1970. Their trials came after Pope John Paul II elevated Latvian Bishop Julijans Vaivods to the rank of Cardinal last January.
Western diplomats believe the trials and severe sentences could signal a new crackdown on religious dissent in the Soviet Baltic states, known for their religious beliefs, which Soviet authorities link with nationalism.
