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Last July, the Utena District Court found the pastor guilty of these crimes, but, in the judgment of the appeal court, S. Filipavičius did not commit any act that showed signs of crime or misconduct.
The court that heard the pastor’s appeal stated that it did not agree with the district court’s conclusion that the amount and structure of the agricultural activities, assets and liabilities carried out by S. Filipavičius in 2003-2017 could not be determined, like he did. he did not keep agricultural accounts, he did not record documents.
“The Supreme Court noted that S. Filipavičius never refused to provide the necessary documents, and provided a copy of the income and expenditure log during further questioning,” the court report reads.
The Panevėžys Regional Court also noted that, although not all the accounting documents were found and seized during the search, this does not mean that such documents did not exist at all and that the farm accounts were not kept.
The appellate court order states, among other things, that there are no circumstances to support the district court’s conclusion that the submitted agricultural accounts were not completed on time. According to the court, the examination of the case confirmed that it was probable that all the entries of the same group were written in the same pen, but this did not prove that they had been made after the start of the investigation.
The district court also relied on two auditors and a re-examination by a specialist, which confirmed only insignificant discrepancies in the management of the farm’s accounts.
S. Filipavičius was also convicted in the Utena District Court of negligently keeping the accounts of the Troškūnai parish in connection with cash received from believers for religious services and fees.
The Panevėžys court emphasized that the Accounting Law does not apply to activities related to church religious services, therefore, in the court’s opinion, this accusation was completely unfounded.
The panel of judges also noted that the Agreement between the Republic of Lithuania and the Holy See on Relations between the Catholic Church and the Rights of the State establishes (…) that the state does not tax voluntary donations to the church and donations to its pastoral, educational and charitable activities. “, – says the court report.
As the sacrifices of the faithful fall within the exclusive competence of the church, the state does not regulate the accounting of these funds.
The pre-trial investigation in this case was conducted by officials from the Šiauliai and Panevėžys Regional Boards of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service, and Kęstutis Greiciūnas, the prosecutor of the Second Prosecution Division of the Panevėžys Regional Prosecutor’s Office, led and supported state prosecution in court.
The decision of the Panevėžys Regional Court takes effect immediately, but an appeal may be made to the Supreme Court of Lithuania in cassation.
