Vytautas Gapšys, a Labour Party MP convicted in the MG Grupė political corruption case, is serving his sentence in Kaunas prison. The Seimas speaker says she will not initiate the imprisoned MP’s impeachment until the Supreme Court issues its ruling on the case.
Last week, the Court of Appeal reversed the ruling of the first instance court and convicted all defendants in the high-profile political corruption case cantering around MG Grupė (former MG Baltic), one of Lithuania’s biggest business groups.
Gapšys was sentenced to four years and six months in prison. The MP, along with the Labour Party as a legal entity, was convicted of accepting a bribe from Raimondas Kurlianskis, a former vice-president of MG Baltic.
According to law enforcement, Gapšys acted in the interests of MG Grupė in exchange for a 27,100-euro bribe. He arrived at the Vilnius County Police Headquarters on Friday and was transferred to Kaunas prison on the same day.
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The Lithuanian Constitution provides for the impeachment of convicted MPs. However, the Seimas is dragging its feet and says it will wait for the Supreme Court to decide whether it will grant Gapšys’ request to suspend the execution of his sentence.
“That answer will determine what we do next. If the sentence is suspended, Gapšys will be released and will continue working as an MP. If the conviction is not suspended, then yes, we in the Seimas will have to decide on impeachment,” said Seimas Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen.
It is not clear when the Supreme Court could issue its ruling. Therefore, at least for a while, the Lithuanian parliament will have an MP behind bars.
That was already the case 25 years ago. In 1998, Audrius Butkevičius was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for attempted large-scale fraud. However, the impeachment, which awaited him in the Seimas after this conviction, failed.
A minimum of 85 votes is required to impeach a convicted MP. According to Jonas Jarutis of the Farmers and Greens Union, this time too, it cannot be guaranteed that there will be enough votes. Conflicting court rulings are adding to the confusion, he said.
“We have a really strange situation where one [court] acquits completely and the other convicts completely, which raises questions for the public and for us as citizens. We would like to have that clarity, definitive clarity, and then it would be much easier for us to decide,” the MP said.
Until the impeachment, or even if it fails, Gapšys would remain a parliament member, but only formally. He would not be paid and would not be able to attend plenary or committee meetings while in prison.
“In general, the rules of the prison are quite strict. [...] They are not allowed to have mobile phones or devices that could be used to communicate with other people,” noted Deputy Seimas Speaker Julius Sabatauskas.
According to him, it is hard to imagine an MP in prison being able to perform his duties.
“Except using old technology. That is, writing,” he said.
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