Rimantas Mockus, who took office as Lithuania’s justice minister last week, may have attended a party with prostitutes 18 years ago, TV3 reported on Monday.
According to TV3, the girls entertained police officers for money at the birthday party of Algimantas Minkauskas, the then head of the Ecology and Law Violations Division of the Vilnius Police Department, in the autumn of 2006,
Mockus was an officer of the aforementioned department at the time.
The newspaper Lietuvos Rytas reported about the birthday and published photographs back then.
Mockus said he could not talk about what took place during the private event. “I won’t comment because it was a private party,” he told TV3.
According to him, the birthday party could have been attended by a dancer but not by prostitutes.
Remigijus Žemaitaitis, the leader of the Nemunas Dawn party, said Mockus had warned him about the story when he received an offer to become justice minister.
“He immediately told me that there would be an event, that there would be photographs that were once shown. I said: it’s ok, you should neither be afraid nor worried about what happened 15 or 20 years ago,” Žemaitaitis said.
In 2006, the Police Department carried out a departmental inquiry into the story, but Minkauskas was not disciplined and was reinstated as division head.
President Gitanas Nausėda, who appointed Mockus as justice minister, said he should “dispel any doubts”.
“The president had no knowledge of such a story when he met the ministerial candidate. We believe that the minister should explain the circumstances of the situation and dispel any doubts,” the President’s Office told the Elta news agency.
On Tuesday, Mockus reiterated that it was a dancer and not prostitutes who attended the party.
“It was a private party. Yes, there was a dancer at this party. The dancer left the party after dancing for the team,” Mockus told Elta. “I apologise for attending a party where a dance was performed 20 years ago.”
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