Lithuanian police are looking into the circumstances of an incident where a young woman claims that she was harassed while working as a volunteer at the European Figure Skating Championships, which took place in Kaunas last week.
Ramūnas Matonis, the spokesperson for the Police Department, said the police have received three statements regarding the incident: from the event’s security staff, the International Skating Union (ISU), and the affected woman.
“The clarification of the circumstances of the incident has begun, and a decision on whether to initiate a pre-trial investigation for a breach of public order should be made within 10 days,” he told BNS.
Kaja Elena Brilė, who worked at the European Figure Skating Championship in Kaunas, has posted on Facebook that she was harassed by Ervinas Kvitkauskas, a sports journalist and one of the organisers of the event. She said the man was drunk.
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According to Matonis, the volunteer called the police at around 19:30, and when the officers arrived, security personnel explained that there had been a conflict with a woman who had no right to be in a certain place.
“The woman was checked, she was sober. She did not specify the persons who allegedly harassed her and refused to write a statement on Saturday,” Matonis said.
The officers did not check whether Kvitkauskas was sober because the woman did not point him out, according to the police spokesperson.
Vytautas Jasutis, president of the Lithuanian Skating Federation, has described the woman’s behaviour as “a provocation”. According to him, Brilė entered a prohibited zone and when she was asked to leave, she refused to do so and “got herself into a conflict”.
On Tuesday, Jasutis, Kvitkausas, and Justina Fabijonavičienė, head of the championships’ organising committee, held a press conference to outline their position.
Kvitkauskas strictly denied having consumed alcohol or touched Brilė during the event on Saturday. He said he would go to court for defamation.
“This is slander. This will be taken to court. Do you think it is possible to do this kind of work, wait for the Seimas Speaker, and attend meetings with the ISU team, while drunk?” He told the press conference. “I didn’t touch her, that is a lie. I don't want to go into details, so many lies.”
According to him, he may have raised his voice when Brilė refused to show him her accreditation and took his phone.
“She refused to show her accreditation, started shouting something. I tried to take a picture of her accreditation from the side, but she grabbed my phone and threatened to throw my phone on the ice. Then I told her, perhaps not in a very nice tone, that you have to get out of this place because this is inappropriate behaviour,” Kvitkauskas said.
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