The Lithuanian Court of Appeals has issued a ruling in one of the most resonant political corruption cases in Lithuania, convicting a former liberal politician and the vice president of one of the biggest business groups in the country to real prison sentences.
Eligijus Masiulis, former transport minister and leader of the Liberal Movement, and Raimondas Kurlianskis, former vice-president of MG Group (formerly MG Baltic), were found guilty of bribery and influence peddling in the so-called MG Baltic political corruption case.
Kurlianskis was sentenced to six years imprisonment and a fine of 25,000 euros, while Masiulis was sentenced to 6.5 years of imprisonment.
Another politician, Vytautas Gapšys of the Labour Party, was also found guilty and sentenced to 4.5 years of imprisonment.
MG Group, the Liberal Movement and the Labour Party were given fines of 1 million, 500,000, and 400,000 euros respectively.
Former liberal politicians Šarūnas Gustainis and Gintaras Steponavičius – one-time minister of education – were fined 25,000 and 20,000 euros respectively.
Commenting on the ruling, Judge Albinas Bielskis said that Kurlianskis and the politicians in question had a long-standing and fairly close relationship.
“During the periods when the offences in this case were committed, systematic meetings between Kurlianskis and the above-mentioned members of the Seimas [parliament] were documented, usually initiated by Kurlianskis. And he did so intentionally as the meeting would take place at the time when political issues important for the MG Baltic group were being discussed by the Seimas or other state or municipal institutions,” the judge said.
Kurlianskis, one of the convicted, said he would appeal the ruling.
“I have not and do not admit any guilt on my part, and the verdict will be appealed,” he told reporters after the ruling.
Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, parliament speaker and current leader of the Liberal Movement, said the party would decide next week whether to appeal the ruling and the 500,000-euro fine.
“This is, understandably, bad news for the party, but we have lived through much more difficult times,” Čmilytė-Nielsen told reporters.
Meanwhile, Andrius Mazuronis, the current leader of the Labour Party, said that the 400,000-euro fine would be a heavy financial burden and effectively prevent the party from running in next year’s general elections.
“Court decisions should be respected, but I don’t understand this one and do not accept it as fair,” Mazuronis commented, adding that the Court of Appeals succumbed to public pressure to issue the guilty verdict. “The [convicted] politicians were made scapegoats by the court system and public pressure,” he said.
“I have no doubt that the decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court,” Masiulis commented to Elta.
“As far as the judicial system is concerned, I also feel somewhat puzzled when a district court, which has assessed all the facts of the case and has done a truly enormous amount of work, issues an acquittal, while a different court, which sits in the same building, a different composition of the panel of judges adopts a completely different verdict,” he said.
The so-called MG Baltic scandal broke out on May 12, 2016, after officers of the Special Investigation Service (STT) searched the home, workplace, and car of the then leader of the Liberal Movement Masiulis. During one of the searches, 242,000 euros were found in the politician’s possession.
The prosecutor then revealed that Masiulis may have received a bribe from Kurlianskis, vice-president of MG Baltic. On the same day, Kurlianskis was detained.
On June 7, 2018, more than two years after the searches were carried out, a case of possible political corruption was opened at Vilnius Regional Court.
The case shook Lithuania’s political system with suspicions that MG Baltic – one of the largest business groups in the country operating in manufacturing, retail, and media industries – had undue influence on politicians and legislation.
According to the case materials, bribes were given to politicians both in the form of cash or donations to public establishments, and even an invitation to appear on a TV program was deemed bribery. The Court of Appeals also concluded that a bottle of vodka and a box with cash given to Masulis were also bribes.
Last year, Vilnius Regional Court acquitted all the defendants in the case to much outrage among observers.
Justas Laucius, chief prosecutor of the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office, commented after the ruling on Wednesday that the Appeal Court’s verdict proved that the lower court had made mistakes in its examination of the case.
“This final verdict of the Court of Appeals shows that the lower court dealt with the case in a fundamentally wrong way. In other words, it is noted [in the Court of Appeals ruling] that a number of errors were made in the first instance court’s examination of the case, including errors in the application of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Criminal Code,” the prosecutor commented.
The Court of Appeals’ ruling can still be appealed with the Supreme Court of Lithuania within three months.
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