Giedrius Janonis, a suspected leader of an organised crime group known as Kamuoliniai, has been employed as a project manager by the Lithuanian Amateur Football Association, 15min.lt has reported.
“I cannot say precisely as I’m not the director, but he should be engaged in search for teams, schedule making, organisation of matches, search for sponsors… All ongoing organisational matters related to city championships,” Karolis Dieninis, spokesman for the National Amateur Football League, told the news website.
The association organises football matches in Kaunas as well as summer and winter championship for the teams of Lithuania’s second-largest city.
Janonis spent several years in detention until July when a Kaunas court allowed to release him with a bail of 30,000 euros. The court also set bails for other defendants, Deividas Čereška and Genadijus Borisovas.
“The court took into consideration the social and family ties of Giedrius Janonis […] that he needs regular medical supervision, that the Lithuanian Amateur Football Association (LFMA) has characterised him positively and there is a possibility to employ the defendant as a project manager at the LFMA,” the court said in its decision quoted by 15min.lt.
The criminal case in Kaunas Regional Court consists of 424 volumes of documents and data about crimes allegedly committed by the gang between 1999 and 2018.
Charges include the organisation and leadership of an armed criminal group, murder and attempted murder, bodily injuries, extortion, and other serious crimes and offences characterised by particular brutality and the use of physical violence.
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