Two more former secret police in the Baltic states have been found guilty of Stalinist-era crimes against humanity and sentenced to prison.

An 86-year-old former officer in Stalin's secret police, Yevgeny Savenko, was found guilty by a Latvian court on July 7 and sentenced to two years in prison for participating in the arrest and deportation of scores of Latvians after the country was occupied by Soviet forces in 1940. Prosecutors say Savenko signed orders for the arrest of some 50 people, including policemen, Latvian officers and even several high-school students. Many were eventually executed or died in prison. In Estonia, Karl-Leonhard Paulov, 76, was convicted on June 29 and given an eight year prison sentence for murdering three Estonians hiding in the forest from Soviet authorities in the 1940s. Last year, he was convicted on similar charges. But a court later ordered that his case be heard again. Tens of thousands of people took refuge in Baltic forests in the years after the Soviet takeover in 1940. Many sought to avoid deportation to Siberia, while others took up arms to actively resist the Soviet occupation. As a young agent, Paulov was ordered into the forest to gain the confidence of forest refugees, then to capture or kill them. Prosecutors said he ended up shooting two of the men mentioned in the indictment in the back. Paulov told the court he'd acted in self-defense. After they regained independence, all three Baltic states pledged to indict and convict those responsible for Stalinist-era atrocities. Half a dozen men have been convicted in the Baltic states for Stalinist-era crimes, and half a dozen other cases are expected to go to court in the coming weeks and months.