An unprecedented scandal in the army: conscripts were forced to pay bribes during their service

“Ku ** a, na ** ui, what are you doing?” – Mantas Šimkus, a chain from the Grand Duke Kęstutis Motorized Infantry Battalion of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, kicked the recruit from the leg to the ribs with uncensored words.

Recruits who served in the Taurag district admitted admitted that M. Šimkus, who was in charge of them, demanded money not only for not registering possible service violations, but also for the fact that they managed to pass the mandatory tests.

M. Šimkus, who tried to “educate” the recruits with his unwritten rules, was not only removed from professional military service, but was also prosecuted: the court confirmed the accusations of the Klaip prosecutors statedda and stated that M. Šimkus, who was acting commander, not only demanded and accepted bribes for illegal actions. powers, but also used physical violence against a subordinate soldier.

For these crimes, the court sentenced M. Šimkas, officially registered in the Šilut distrito district, to 12 days in prison. It could have been much stricter, but the defendant pleaded guilty and said he felt sorry for his criminal behavior.

Commanders who hate commander behavior asked for help

According to the data of the case, it was established that in November of last year M. Šimkus provoked a subordinate soldier of the permanent compulsory military service to give a bribe, demanding 10 euros from some and 20 euros from others. Two soldiers, who were demanded 20 euros, paid money to their commander, but only 10 euros. Others, no, but promised to pay.

The soldiers had to pay this money due to the fact that M. Šimkus would not initiate an investigation into the agenda violations: the soldiers used mobile phones at an unauthorized time.

In addition, according to the data of the criminal case, it was established that M. Šimkus was violent against a soldier who had not paid 20 Eur – during the exercise, while he was performing his duties as an instructor, causing physical pain.

These crimes became apparent when the hated recruits of the commander’s behavior approached the leadership of the Kęstutis Battalion.

M. Šimkus began his service in the Lithuanian Armed Forces in 2010. as a volunteer soldier, and in 2011. he has taken an oath to serve Lithuania faithfully; in November he served as a professional military service soldier.

During the interrogation, M. Šimkus, who was prosecuted, stated that at the beginning of November last year, by order of the battalion commander, he was appointed specialist instructor, so that the soldiers of the permanent compulsory military service were subordinate to him and others instructors.

“I had to make sure the soldiers followed the military discipline and the battalion’s agenda,” he said.

But, according to M. Šimkus, the soldiers were not disciplined; he once saw how around 5 pm In the battalion, a recruit uses a personal mobile phone, although it was only available after dinner, after 7:10 pm.

“I took this phone and told the soldier that this was not the first violation of its kind, because I had already received comments before. I informed him that this would leave the phone at the company until the end of the week,” said M. Šimkus.

But that same night, the soldier requested the return of the phone that he had taken.

Offered a kilogram of candy

“I told him that I could return the phone if he writes an explanation, and if he doesn’t want to write it, let me offer him something,” continued M. Šimkus. – Ordinario offered a kilo of candy, but I told him that I didn’t eat candy, then he offered me 20 euros, but promised to transfer the money only when I received a salary. I trusted him and gave him the phone number, I didn’t tell him to write an official explanation. “

M. Šimkus did not hide that the recruit was in no hurry to pay, although later he repeatedly asked him to cover the “debt”.

“He wanted this money just so that the ordinary would begin to follow order, military discipline and be a lesson for him,” he said.

M. Šimkus soon applied the breeding methods to other recruits as well, after noticing in the middle of the day that two soldiers subordinate to the specialization course were playing on the phone, although they had to perform the daily tasks assigned to them, clean the weapons and manage the equipment.

“When I arrived, I ordered to stop the violation of discipline, participate in daily activities and hand over the phones for storage,” admitted M. Šimkus. – After that, I asked the soldiers how they would talk to me about the rapes and if they would like to get the phones back. Then the soldiers themselves offered 10 or 20 euros each, so I gave away the phones. About an hour or later, one of these soldiers gave me 20 euros. But I returned this money to the soldiers, because the company commander found out about the incident, called me to speak, and accused me of organized crime.

M. Šimkus assured that if the company commander had not summoned him, he would have returned the money to the soldiers before Christmas.

“I never directly told the soldiers to give them money for violations of the agenda, I didn’t say as much as I remember, I told them ‘how would we talk’ and the same soldiers offered me the money,” he exclaimed.

He did not push, only his foot touched her buttocks

According to M. Šimkus, the recruits themselves offered the money because their evaluation was carried out every month: if a soldier commits a violation and, as a result, an investigation is carried out, they are paid a lower salary.

“I believe that the soldiers, not wanting their salary to be lowered, offered money, although I did not want to receive it, I just wanted them to have discipline,” admitted M. Šimkus that the soldiers understood from his behavior that he was demanding a bribe.

Asked about physical violence against a recruit, M. Šimkus said that that day he led an exercise on the battalion’s territory, during which the participants of the specialized training course “trained the tactical movement in pairs.”

“I realized that a common man cannot fire a series, he cannot adjust a machine gun, so it bothered me that he could not adjust the machine gun after the theory and practical classes and when I got closer to her I started yelling at her with words without censorship: “I wanted him to handle the bullet faster. M. Šimkus.

However, as he pointed out, no violence was used against the soldier, he only touched the recruit’s buttocks with his foot.

“But the ordinary soldier could not yet adjust the machine gun, so I adjusted it myself,” said M. Šimkus that the recruit had distinguished himself as an undisciplined soldier from the beginning of his service, often without following instructions.

“However, I did not want to hit him,” the soldier also pointed out, that the exclamation point “touching the foot” and cursing are not related to the fact that he did not bring him 20 euros for the phone.

At the time, a permanent conscription soldier said during a survey that the course instructor’s request to pay a bribe for not recording misconduct surprised him: “At first I thought he was joking, but then I realized that It wasn’t a joke. He paid the money. “

He felt very uncomfortable: the commander is violent

According to the soldier, M. Šimkus also recalled about the money during the exercise: “The chain came and asked me when I would give them the money. I told him I didn’t have them now, and he was outraged that I was like another soldier who promised to bring him a cake, but didn’t take it anyway. After that, he told me that maybe he could keep the machine gun on course, but for another soldier, definitely not. And the next day there was another exercise: shooting with machine guns imitating. While firing, the machine gun stopped firing so I thought the bar had jammed, then I modified the machine gun, I fired it once, but the machine gun stopped again. I remembered from training that the gas pressure had to be adjusted, but I didn’t do it due to inexperience and tried to shoot again by pulling the lock. Then when the chain approached, M. Šimkus once turned left and started cursing in uncensored words, and then adjusted the gas pressure regulator. “

The soldier said that he had not suffered any bodily injury during the incident, but he felt pain and felt very uncomfortable because for him, when starting the practical shooting, the instructor used violence for the first time after the failure and he felt hatred for me.

After this incident, M. Šimkus did not demand more unpaid money from the soldier, but a few days later he heard from other soldiers that the chain had taken away their mobile phones and promised not to consider the question of disciplinary responsibility for the money.

Furthermore, he hinted that M. Šimkus was not the first to cheat the soldiers.

“During the specialist course, the chain in the classroom after the written theoretical tests before the announcement of the results reported that only a part of the course participants passed the test, the other part did not pass the test,” said the soldier . – And then M. Šimkus said that if the soldiers want everyone to move on, everyone should charge 10 euros for him. About 30 soldiers took this test, after such chain statement, the soldiers talked among themselves about what to do, but I told my friends that I did not have to pay money and that I did not give the money myself, I did not hear that any of the soldiers would not have paid either. “

The soldier admitted that the test was not credited to him the first time, but he passed it a second time.

Other soldiers confirmed that the chain demanded money, but some justified that they were afraid not to ask their commander: “I couldn’t give him money, because the chain M. Šimkus was my commander and demanded a bribe, and if he did not spend the money he was in troubles “.