The president's decision was based on a proposal from the State Awards Council, the Press Service of the President said in a statement.
In January, an extended seven-member panel of judges of the Lithuanian Supreme Court rejected the appeal filed by Paleckis against his conviction.
On June 12, 2012, a Vilnius court fined Paleckis with 10,400 litas (EUR 3,015) for the denial of Soviet aggression following his statement to the press in 2010. Speaking of the Soviet Union's attempts to overthrow the then Lithuania's government in early 1991, he said that "our own people were shooting at our own people."
This was the first verdict in Lithuania's history on charges of denying aggressive conduct of the Soviet Union.
Fourteen unarmed civilians were killed and more than 1,000 were injured during the attempts of the Soviet army and special units to take over the Television Tower and the building of Lithuania's National Radio and Television on January 13, 1991. Soviet soldiers did not attempt to attack the Supreme Council that had proclaimed Lithuania's independence on March 11, 1990.
Paleckis received a Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania in 2004 from acting President Artūras Paulauskas.
