The Lithuanian parliament has decided to conduct a parliamentary inquiry into a whistleblower affair that revolves around the State Security Department checking the inner circle of President Gitanas Nausėda back when he was still a presidential candidate.
The parliament set up a temporary inquiry commission to investigate the circumstances disclosed by the whistleblower, and the finding should be presented by March 10. The commission will be chaired by MP Vytautas Bakas, member of the opposition Democrats “For Lithuania” group.
Sixty-two MPs voted in favour of setting up the commission, 36 were against and three abstained.
Supporters of the inquiry argue that the whistleblower’s story has left unanswered questions, while opponents argue that it would be directed against the president in order to undermine his popularity in the run-up to the presidential election that will be held next spring.
The commission is tasked with investigating the whistleblower’s information on possible unlawful collection of personal information, possible unlawful influence on intelligence activities, possible interference on the electoral process during the 2019 presidential election, possible unlawful support to the presidential campaign, possible violations of the whistleblower’s rights, possible unlawful influence on sanctions policy against Belarus.
The initiative to set up the commission came after the Prosecutor General’s Office stated last spring that the whistleblower’s (an intelligence officer’s) report, submitted four years ago, to the then chair of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence (NSGK) on the actions of the VSD leadership had not been properly investigated.
The whistleblower contacted Bakas, who was at the time the chairman of the NSGK, in 2019.
New details about this case emerged in the book The Whistleblower and the President by the journalists Dovydas Pancerovas and Birute Davidonytė.
Further reading
In The Whistleblower and the President, the now former VSD officer claimed that in July 2018 he received several sheets of paper with many names and a verbal order from the department’s deputy director Remigijus Bridikis to “check one candidate’s election team and a list of possible supporters”. It turned out that the list included Nausėda’s supporters and associates.
Having looked into the situation at the time, the NSGK stated that the VSD had acted lawfully in checking people close to the presidential candidates, but also urged the VSD to refrain from unwritten verbal orders in such situations.
VSD representatives said they had checked all the candidates’ teams, while the whistleblower claimed that only Nausėda’s team had been checked and Bridikis confirmed to him that the lists had been obtained from Nausėda.
The president categorically denies having asked the VSD to check his team.
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