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The president of the court, Dainius Žalimas, told BNS that the group of Seimas members had not proven that P. Gražulis’ immunity had been revoked due to political persecution.
“The plaintiff does not prove that Mr. Gražulis was persecuted for political reasons. The mere fact that consent to prosecution has been decided a second time does not in itself mean any political persecution,” said D. Žalimas.
“It just came to our knowledge then. Both commissions – former mandates and now – have not encountered any political persecution, it is simply the political will of the other Seimas,” he added.
According to him, the Court has no evidence that the waiver of Mr. Gražulis’ immunity violated due process.
“There was a dispute about the form of the session, if there was no violation of the Statute of the Seimas, here again – no violation of the Statute when the adoption of a legal act determines that that legal act is unconstitutional, it must be substantial,” said D. Žalimas.
“In this case, what is essential means that it must be shown that due process has been violated. And due process (…) The CC has no evidence that it has been violated, since the main requirement of due process is that the person has the right to be heard. Mr. Gražulis was really listened to, “he said.
“Even if there had been statute violations, the applicant had not proven that they were so serious as to interfere with due process,” the president added.
At the end of December, 35 members of the Seimas, mainly “peasants”, “workers”, representatives of the Mixed Group of members of the Seimas and the liberal Raimundas Lopata petitioned the Constitutional Court to suspend the immunity of P. Gražulis.
In mid-December, the Seimas revoked the legal immunity of P. Gražulis, representative of the Joint Group of members of the Seimas. 97 members of the Seimas voted in favor, six against and 26 abstained.
In mid-January, the Special Investigation Service (STT) issued complaints of abuse to him.
According to STT, the data from the pre-trial investigation allow a reasonable suspicion that from May 2015 to February 2017 P. Gražulis sought and received real estate benefits from Judex, acting illegally in the interests of this company and seeking not to prohibit the company from exporting for production offenses abroad.
It was previously reported that P. Gražulis helped handle the problems of the frozen food company Judex when Russian officials found the Listeria bacteria in the company’s products in 2015.
Prosecutors said Judex politicians had repeatedly called on Lithuanian and Russian officials to help the company, had gone to the Russian Royal District to influence Russian officials, urged businessmen to pay bribes, and asked Judex to violate the existing procedures.
According to the service, in May last year, the Kaunas District Court acquitted the then director of the Rimantas Kičas company of criminal responsibility after he pleaded guilty.
The Seimas has twice previously refused to hold P. Gražulis responsible for his actions during the marches of sexual minorities, as well as for the pickets at the prosecutor’s house, once in this case Judex.
Mr. Gražulis himself denies the allegations and claims that this case is a political settlement.
In 2016, prosecutors tried to question P. Gražulis as a special witness, but he refused to testify.
The investigation prior to the trial of the case is carried out by officials of the Central Board of Investigation of the STT, the investigation is controlled by the Office of the Prosecutor of the Department of Investigation of Organized Crime and Corruption of the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation.
The Penal Code stipulates that a person can be punished with a fine or imprisonment of up to seven years for abuse.
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