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At the court hearing, victim S. Skvernelis pointed out that he had suffered significant non-pecuniary damage as a result of the defamatory note addressed to him.
In this case, the charges were brought against Gediminas Vaitkevičius. He is accused of violating public order by the inscription on the asphalt of Upės Street in the Vilnius district in June last year: “Skvernelis 1 km house of the thief”.
G. Vaitkevičius did not admit his guilt at the hearing. He also expressed his willingness to testify at the end of the trial.
Meanwhile, victim S. Skvernelis alleged that he had suffered significant non-pecuniary damage as a result of this note addressed to him personally.
“On the way from home to work in June, a road sign was noticed containing defamatory information, presented in a vandalist manner. I noticed it, it was noticed by my security guards, the neighbors we interacted with, the family members, ”he said.
The former prime minister emphasized that in a June vandalism on Upės str. the slanderous inscription written on the asphalt does not correspond to reality.
“I have never been charged or convicted of slanderously spreading information that I am a thief. It really caused a lot of personal experiences both for me personally and for the family members, because she is also a wife, a little boy who already understands, ”he said.
S. Skvernel also noted that the crime was committed by destroying state property.
“I have suffered great moral damage, such actions are criminal, illegal and have been committed, they slander me and yet that crime was committed by vandalizing State property,” he stressed.
S. Skvernelis also emphasized that when he saw the inscription on the road surface, he did not associate it with the circumstances of the paving of Up des Street, in which it lived widely discussed at that time in public space.
“I did not assume that this was the case (related to ELTA), but it may have been influenced by the statements of certain politicians who shaped public opinion,” he said.
ELTA recalls that at the end of 2019, the Central Commission of Official Ethics had initiated an investigation into the circumstances of the asphalting of Upės Street. The investigation began on the basis of information published by the 15min.lt portal and after collecting primary data from the Government Chancellery, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Municipality of the Vilnius District.
The investigation carried out by 15min.lt announced that 300 thousand more of the Vilnius district roads would be allocated for asphalt. Almost the entire amount of € 1 million went to the repair of Upės Street in the village of Smigliai. It was also announced that the then Prime Minister chaired the meeting at which the funds for the paving of roads in the Vilnius district were distributed. It was questioned whether the actions of the state politician did not contradict the requirements of the Law on the Reconciliation of Public and Private Interests in the Public Service.
However, the COEC finally decided to terminate the investigation into S. Skvernel’s behavior by making decisions at the government meeting on public funding.
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