In a statement issued on Wednesday, the prosecutor said the actions of the persons who provided accommodation to five Afghans for several days and were later questioned as special witnesses cannot be deemed as intentional active hiding.

The pre-trial investigation into the illegal movement of people via the state border was launched in the middle of September by Lithuania's State Border Guard Service after it received information that five illegal migrants from Afghanistan stayed for several days at a homestead in Ignalina District.

Border guards learned about them after the European Court of Human Rights introduced interim measures in their case and banned Lithuania from sending them back.

More than 4,200 irregular migrants have crossed into Lithuania from Belarus illegally so far this year. Lithuania and other Western countries accuse the Minsk regime of orchestrating the unprecedented migration influx, calling it "hybrid aggression".

Lithuania has a state of emergency declared along its border with Belarus until mid-January.

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