Today, Vilnius Regional Court upheld the request of the prosecutor of the Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office, who supported the public prosecution in the criminal case investigated by the Special Investigation Service (STT), and found Petras Gražulis, Member of the Seimas, guilty of abuse, by imposing on him a fine in an amount of 400 MSF (minimum subsistence figures), that is more than 15 thousand euros. At the request of the prosecutor, the court also confiscated more than 4 thousand euros, as a result of the criminal offense.
In his indictment the prosecutor also requested the imposition of a coercive measure - to deprive for a period of four years of public rights to be elected or appointed to positions, to which persons are elected or appointed by state institutions, establishments, enterprises. The court, however, did not upheld this request of the prosecutor.
This judgment of Vilnius Regional Court is not final and may be subject to appeal to be brought before the Lithuanian Court of Appeal.
According to the data available in the case file, from May of 2015 to February of 2017, P. Gražulis, Member of the Seimas, possibly sought a property benefit from one private company and received it while acting in the interests of that company and by interfering in an unauthorized manner with activities of other civil servants in Lithuania and Russia, also by offering money to Russian officials in exchange for illegal actions in the interests of the specified company. According to the prosecutor, by such actions the member of the Seimas systematically, for a long time, exercised his, as the representative of the highest authority, status and influence, undermined the prestige of the position held by him, the authority of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and of the members of the Seimas, has violated the principles enshrined in the Constitution, and thus broke the oath of the member of the Seimas, and, as a result, the State suffered significant non-material damage.
The criminal case was transferred to the court following the resumption of the pre-trial investigation in May of 2021, after the Seimas allowed in December of 2020 to prosecute P. Gražulis. Before that, in June of 2019, the application by the Prosecutor General for the waiver of the legal immunity of the member of the Seimas was not upheld. The pre-trial investigation against him was then terminated.
The pre-trial investigation, which was initiated in 2016, was conducted by the officials of the Central Investigation Board of the STT. The criminal case consists of 44 volumes of documents.
