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“The Court of Honor for Judges considers that a judge has violated several requirements of the Code of Ethics of Judges for his conduct and, therefore, has degraded the name of a judge and has damaged the authority of the court. Therefore, he proposes to the President to dismiss Rasa Augustė, a judge of the Klaipėda City Court from the Klaipėda District Court, ”reads the report by the National Courts Administration.
The Ethics and Judicial Discipline Commission initiated disciplinary proceedings against the judges on the recommendation of the President of the Klaipėda District Court. The Commission’s decision establishes that the conduct of Judge R. Augustė violates the principles of duty, justice and impartiality, exemplary, decency and solidarity enshrined in the Code of Ethics for Judges.
After examining the case file and hearing the judge’s explanations, the Judges’ Honor Court determined that the judge had not notified the President of the court of the legal proceedings to which she was a party to the proceedings. It was also established that the judge did not withdraw from the civil case in which one of the parties was the Klaipėda Region Waste Management Center company and promised to hear the civil case, although he had been litigating with this legal entity in various Lithuanian courts for several years.
After the Klaipėda Region Waste Management Center declared the expulsion, Judge R. Augustė withdrew from the proceedings in this case, but, when examining the expulsion presented against him, according to the Court of Honor of Judges , did not assess whether there were actual facts that cast doubt on its impartiality. grounds for expulsion and he withdrew for entirely different reasons, allegedly under her pressure, citing corruption allegations in another judge on the same court.
When that civil case was transferred to another judge of the Klaipėda City Court of the Klaipėda District Court, Judge R. Augustė presented an official report to the president of the court on the evaluation of the judge’s decision and, after having arrived To personal conclusions about its illegality, he asked to decide the disciplinary responsibility of the judge. question.
Such conduct by Judge R. Augustė was evaluated by the Court of Honor of Judges as an interference in the administration of justice of another judge and in violation of the constitutional principle of independence of a judge.
In choosing the disciplinary liability measure, the Court of Honor for Judges took into account the fact that the question of disciplinary responsibility for R. Augustė is being addressed for the first time in the Court of Honor for Judges: in 2013 and 2017, the Judgments of the Court of Honor of Judges were severely reprimanded.
According to the court, although the terms of the sentences have expired, the Honorary Court of Judges considered that these data are additional characteristics of the judge and to show that she did not draw conclusions, her behavior did not change.
The Judges’ Honor Court, after evaluating the material collected, proposes to the President to remove Judge R. Augustė from the Klaipėda District Court from the Klaipėda District Court.
“The constant disregard and misunderstanding of the basic requirements of the Code of Ethics for Judges allows judging the behavior of a judge as incompatible with the principles of the activities of judges, degrading the name of a judge and damaging the authority of the court. Taking into account all the circumstances, it can be concluded that the lightest disciplinary sanctions would not be sufficiently disciplinary ׅ ”, points out Virgilijus Grabinskas, president of the Court of Honor of Judges.
This decision of the Court of Honor of Judges can be appealed to the Supreme Court of Lithuania within 10 days from the day of its adoption.
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