Following a decision by the Supreme Court not to hear her appeal, federal authorities say they are proceeding with the extradition of a former Lithuanian judge and parliamentarian who had been living in Chicago’s suburbs and worked as a florist.
A Tuesday court filing by Chicago federal prosecutors says there are no longer any hurdles to extraditing Neringa Venckiene. Hours earlier, the Supreme Court announced its decision on the appeal.
The 48-year-old waged a two-year legal battle against extradition to Lithuania on charges linked to her claims a pedophile network victimized her 4-year-old niece.
Venckiene worked as a florist in the far northwest suburbs before her 2018 arrest at Lithuania’s behest. She has said she fears being killed in Lithuania. She is charged with defying orders in 2012 to relinquish custody of her niece.
Tuesday’s filing didn’t provide an extradition date.
She was still at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago, according to the jail’s website.
Her son, Karolis Venckus, 20, spent five hours Saturday with his mother in the prison. They talked about her imminent extradition.
“She has accepted it,” Venckus said. “We just talked about what that meant for her and my grandparents (who live in Lithuania). She is just worried it will be unsafe for her in Lithuania or that they are just going to violate the treaty and pile up lots of charges against her. She’s quite strong.”
Venckus said he and his mother have expected extradition at any time. He said each morning about 10 a.m. he receives a message from her. The only way he will know she has been removed is if he does not get a message.
He said he did receive a message from her Wednesday morning.
Venckus, who still lives in their suburban home and is in his second year at McHenry County College, said he still is not sure what he will do. He has considered moving to Europe to complete school.
The United States is acting under an extradition treaty that was written over 100 years ago, said her Chicago-based attorney, Barry Spevack.
Spevack said the law is outdated and should be reviewed.
In an earlier action affirming an appellate court’s ruling to extradite Venckiene, the Supreme Court wrote that it is within the “public interest” that the U.S. “must comply” with the extradition treaty in order for such treaties to “operate successfully.”
The charges she faces in Lithuania include disobeying an order to relinquish custody of her 4-year-old niece, who she alleges was one of the pedophile ring’s victims. She also is accused of hitting an officer as dozens of police pried the girl from her arms in a raid.
Venckiene, who led an anti-pedophilia movement in Lithuania that swept her and six others into the country’s parliament in 2012, told the Associated Press from jail last year that the charges are politically motivated and that shadowy figures she upset with her accusations could kill her if she’s returned.
Venckiene was a central figure in a scandal that gripped and divided her nation of 3 million before she went on the lam in 2013, as prosecutors prepared charges. She is viewed by some Lithuanians as a heroine for exposing a seedy criminal network and by others as a manipulator who fabricated the pedophilia claims.
The events that engulfed Venckiene included the slaying of another judge accused of molesting her niece, and the death of Venckiene’s brother who leveled the initial child abuse accusation and was a suspect in the murder.
Venckiene based her allegations about a pedophile network, in part, on a 2009 video in which her niece graphically describes several men sexually abusing her. But authorities said they weren’t able to find evidence corroborating the girl’s claims. Venckiene says neither she nor her family has heard from the niece since police seized her and returned her to her mother in 2012.
Venckiene had documents allowing her to live and work legally in the U.S. But she turned herself in on Feb. 13, 2018, after learning that American authorities were seeking her arrest.
Freelance reporter Amanda Marrazzo contributed.
