The Lithuanian Special Investigation Service (STT) says an in-house probe into the correspondence of one of its investigators did not reveal any infringements.
Alleged correspondence between Renatas Martišius, the STT investigator, and a Latvian businessman was allegedly used by the lawyers in the so-called National Blood Centre case to pressure the agency's leadership.
Read more: Lawyers detained for alleged pressure on Lithuanian intelligence officers
“Today, when the in-house probe is over, we can see that doubts about the STT officers' actions proved to be unfounded,” Žydrūnas Bartkus, the anti-corruption agency's director, said in a press release on Tuesday.
According to STT, the probe found no evidence suggesting that any of its officers could have put pressure on judges, released information about pre-trial investigations by the agency or sought decisions favourable to people close to them.
Law-enforcement bodies are currently carrying out a pre-trial investigation in which three lawyers – Giedrius Danėlius, Vladas Rakauskas and Dainius Baronas – and Antanas Petrošius, a businessman who is also a suspect in a case involving the National Blood Centre, are suspected of putting pressure on STT officers.
Danėlius is suspected of unlawfully pressuring STT director Žydrūnas Bartkus and Vilija Kerbelienė, an investigator in charge of a pre-trial investigation into the National Blood Centre case.
According to a court ruling obtained by BNS, the suspicions against Danėlius have to do with his alleged intention to use compromising information about Martišius, a criminal intelligence officer with STT.
The lawyers deny blackmailing Bartkus. Danėlius has said that the STT investigator could have put unlawful pressure on judges.
Danėlius is a defence lawyer for Petrošius, a Solis Tribus shareholder, who is accused of seeking to take control of and monopolise the collection of blood plasma in Lithuania and Latvia.
The STT launched an investigation into the National Blood Centre's activity back in 2018 and the case has not reached court yet.
The lawyer is alleged to have shown compromising material about Martišius to another STT investigator, Kerbelienė, and said that it “will be used during the judicial hearing of the case”, unless the pre-trial investigation against his client Petrošius was dropped.
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