[ad_1]
Ilona Adomavičienė, Head of the Marijampolė Migration Department, along with her two subordinates, Žilvinas Lapinskas and Ilona Paludnevičienė, were exemplary officials. I.Adomavičienė even received the first degree certificate “For impeccable service”.
However, the officers from the Immunity Division decided to follow them.
They listened to the conversations of I. Paludnevičienė for a year and I. Adomavičienė for six months. They also installed secret cameras in their offices and recorded their every move.
However, he had no tangible data on the crimes committed, although he tried feverishly to find them.
“Criminal intelligence measures have been used in part not only as a way to clarify possible criminal acts, but also as a way to ‘find’ signs of criminal acts in the actions of the casadores,” the Supreme Court of Lithuania assessed ( LAT) the methods of the officials.
Accused of fast work and gifts
Eventually, the result of such a search turned into a rather strange accusation.
Officials from the Migration Department worked quickly and in an orderly manner. They had three working days to process the application for the entry of foreigners.
However, the department worked faster: 39 requests sent by Lauriva in early 2017 were processed in 1 day, 195 were approved in 2 days, and another 5 were approved in 3 days.
After 4 months, just before Easter, the officers who were quickly converted received a gift from the director of Lauriva: three bottles of brandy and several boxes of sweets. The total value of the gift is 47.76 Eur. It was shared by 4 employees of the Migration Department.
Jonathan Reyes, Flickr.com/Associative Illustration
And immediately afterwards, as if they were members of a dangerous gang, they were shaken up and found themselves behind bars. Incidentally, the SCL admitted that after the searches, three suspects were unnecessarily detained.
“The new detention of the convicted was inappropriate and no procedural measures were taken during it. The application of the procedural coercive measure in question was excessive, for formal and false reasons, and materially violated the rights of the convicted (suspects)”, stated the SCL.
Prosecutor’s approach
This was followed by incredible legal manipulations by the immunity officers and the prosecutor, who not only managed to create the case, but also brought it to court, with the Court of Appeal finding all three officers guilty.
However, the SCL judges declared that previous convictions were illegal, no crime had been committed, and drew attention to the arrogant behavior of officials and prosecutors.
Following the launch of a pre-trial investigation into corruption and allegations against Lauriva’s director and officials from the 4th Migration Division, intense pressure began to plead guilty.
15 minutes He interacted with several people involved in the case, who asked to remain anonymous, but all told the same story: they were threatened that if they did not admit it, big problems awaited not only them but also their relatives.
Lauriva’s director and one of the Immigration Service officials succumbed to the pressure and said the gift was a bribe in the hope that the company’s requests would be processed more quickly.
The prosecutor then separated the pre-trial investigation and a criminal order was quickly drawn up, and the two admitted women were found guilty in 2018 and fined.
Photo of the Prosecutor’s Office / Fiscal Mantle
Later, this circumstance took on special relevance in the trial and conviction of the other three officials.
“Both the courts of first instance and the appeal instance unconditionally followed the conclusions made in this last case and evaluated other evidence, including that justifying the cassation, in the context of the conclusions of the conviction against L. Grigėnienė and J. Mikelskienė “the SCL noted.
Such a maneuver by the prosecutor was not only declared illegal by the judges of the SCL, but also restricted the right of those sentenced to an effective defense and a comprehensive examination of the case.
The SCL judges announced that there was no reason to exclude the investigations. The prosecutor himself motivated his decision hoping for a faster investigation of the crimes.
‘This position of the Public Ministry presupposes a breakdown of the accusatory process, since it distinguishes the suspects who may have committed a crime by acting in a group of accomplices according to their position on the allegations, thus enabling a preliminary ruling in a previous case. in the case, and deprives other defendants of the opportunity to effectively defend themselves against the accused character of a group of accomplices (acting with those convicted in the previous case) ”, reads the SCL ruling.
There was no crime
While the prosecutor sought to show that immigration officials immediately approved Lauriva’s requests in hopes of receiving three bottles of brandy and candy, the SCL saw nothing similar.
True, the court noted that even informal gifts are not justified in any profession.
However, in this case the judges of the SCL did not see corruption and had comments on the sentence handed down by the Kaunas Regional Court.
“The appeals court assessed to the detriment of the convicted the fact that they fulfilled their job duties on time and did not postpone work until the last day. It is also not clear how the assessment of the actions of the convicted would change if they had approved all the requests on the last day of the legislature, ”the SCL stated in the ruling.
4 months passed between approval of requests and gifts received, and there was no evidence that officers expected or expected any reward.
Photo by Irmantas Gelūnas / Photo of 15min / Associative illustration
“When deciding on the intentions of the convicted, it should be taken into account that all the convicted were public officials, received a regular salary of a certain amount, so the version that their actions may have been significantly influenced by a token bribery relatively small – sweets and drinks – is very critical.
A large part of the requests for sweets and drinks had already been approved, so the sweets and drinks delivered did not affect the performance of the inmates. The condemned should not have assumed that they would be rewarded, grateful for creating exceptional conditions for her, because exceptional conditions were not created for her ”, stated the SCL.
Taking into account all these circumstances, the SCL judges declared that no crime had been committed, for which they acquitted the three agents and closed the case.
This SCL decision is final and is not subject to appeal.
Prosecution and police: we act legally
15 minutes He asked the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office and the Marijampolė County Police to comment on this decision.
The representative of the Prosecutor’s Office Simona Kareivienė pointed out that already in 2018, in a separate pre-trial investigation, the director of the company and one of the employees of the migration department were found guilty of bribery.
It also took note of the court’s observation that the officials had acted incorrectly under the Civil Service Law by accepting sweets and gifts.
“It is important to point out that the first and appellate courts, taking a different opinion and because of the Immigration Officers, as well as possible violations, had a different opinion, that is, contrary,” he said.
According to her, the prosecution is not authorized to interpret and comment on court decisions.
We only observe that a prosecutor is a participant in a criminal process who supports a state accusation in a criminal case, that is, he proves that the person accused of committing a crime is guilty. Thus, the conviction of the accused is guilty is sufficiently substantiated with the data of the case and the efforts to prove the accusation cannot by themselves be the basis for verifying a violation of the presumption of innocence of other people (accused or acquitted). The fact that the prosecutors had sufficient substantiated evidence that the defendant may be guilty of committing a crime also makes it possible to judge the fact that he was found guilty in the appeal instance and one of them in the lower court ”, said.
Marijampolė County Police reported that criminal intelligence had been carried out in accordance with court orders.
“Thus, all the criminal intelligence actions mentioned in the sentence were carried out on a legal basis, in accordance with the sentences issued by the court. The deadlines for the application of criminal intelligence actions sanctioned by the courts and the limits of the appropriate measures for acquitted persons were not violated. Marijampole County LSC agents carry out their activities in strict accordance with the Laws and other legal acts, ”said the police representatives.
[ad_2]
