Lithuania’s officials refuse to confirm Anatoliy Shariy ‘persona non grata’ status
On Monday, some Ukrainian media outlets picked up a social media story claiming that Lithuania declared Ukrainian political activist and founder of “Shariy party’ Anatoliy Shariy ‘persona non grata’ and revoked his status of political asylee.
Lodging an information request with the Lithuanian Embassy in Ukraine about the latest development in Anatoliy Shariy case, ‘Bukvy’ reporter was re-directed to Loreta Tumalavičienė,of Lithuania’s Migration Department expert who refused to comment on the situation citing ‘protection of personal data’.
“Your information request concerns the issue of personal data.. Please, take note that we can not answer Your questions according to BDAR policies (General Register of Data Protection),’ said the expert in the official response to ‘Bukvy’.
The information about Lithuania’s move to ban Anatoliy Shariy from coming to Lithuania first surfaced on social media and soon were picked up by Ukrainian media. Neither of the news reports provided credible sources attesting to the story.
Here is what we found in relation to Anatoliy Shariy story – ‘Bukvy’ fact check