Lithuania probes anti-gay website

VILNIUS: Authorities in Lithuania are probing a website that calls for people to kill gays and warns people not to declare in public that they are homosexual, the prosecutor's office said on Monday.   

"Two separate investigations were started. One is related to a website directed against homosexual people, another to leaflets distributed in Vilnius, which call for action against the homosexual community," Aurelija Juodyte, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, said.

"Among the comments on the website, entitled 'Let's stop the rainbow colours', were calls to beat and kill homosexual people," Juodyte said.   

"The leaflets warned homosexual people not to out (declare they were gay) in public," she added.   

The anti-gay campaign comes ahead of a European Union-backed anti-discrimination rally scheduled for last month.   

The event, at which the Lithuanian homosexual community had planned to hoist the rainbow flag, was cancelled by city officials over fears it could spark unrest.   

Juodyte said that Lithuanian law provides for imprisonment of up to three years for discrimination and instigation of hatred.