K.Mažeika’s promise is broken after the scandalous slaughter of bison | Deal

The hunting scandal arose when the bison was confessed to being shot by the Utena district politician and Jonas Slapšinskas, who had ceased to be a member of the Lithuanian Peasants and Greens Union after the incident.

The hunt took place in the Krekenava-Naujamiestis professional hunting area, in one of 21, which was supervised by the State Forestry Company at the time.

About a month and a half after the incident, the Minister of the Environment announced that the SFE would abandon all professional hunting areas before October 15. They regulate animal populations and develop hunting tourism.

At the time, K. Mažeika stated that he was motivated to give up the state hunting grounds not only by public suspicions that the business and political elite coordinating the behind-the-scenes deals were hunting there, but also by long-standing arguments from that the abundance of animals in the forests damages both the trees and the adjacent farms.

We have seen that it is impossible to do everything in a few months.

Despite promises, this has not been done so far.

Explain that it was impossible

If it is decided to destroy hunting areas, the State Forestry Company must approach the Department of Environmental Protection with a request to revoke the permits that have been granted for the use of the so-called hunting resources.

When said permits are revoked, the department starts the auction. They find a new entity that has the right to use these resources. It must be a natural or legal person dedicated to hunting. This right is acquired for ten years, after which it can be extended.

The grantee of the hunting area must pay a one-time fee offered through the auction and then pay annual fees for the use of the resource. It is calculated according to the categories of forests that fall in the area. The entire process, from the SFE’s decision to abandon the hunting area to its transfer to a new entity, can take several months.

This has been done since March with three hunting areas: one in the Kazlų Rūda area and two in the Ukmergė area.

As a result, the State Forestry Company still has 18 plots left and has not initiated any procedure with the Department of Environmental Protection. 15 minutes approved by Saulius Tuska, Chief Specialist of this department’s Natural Resources Protection Division.

The Minister of the Environment ensures that a plan to abandon zones has been drawn up.

According to him, the submission of area auctions quickly failed due to the fact that his documents have yet to be resolved.

“We have seen that it is not possible to do everything in a few months, because there are documents and area limits without adjusting for many years.” 15 minutes K.Mažeika said.

“We have already seen in previous auctions that disputes are taking place. The amounts offered by the areas are high, but the limits of the areas themselves are not clear to environmentalists or hunting groups, ”he added.

He also hinted that the process may be artificially delayed, but did not detail who does it and how.

“Let’s be honest, someone from this lived well and had some tool to influence, even politics,” said the environment minister.

Valdas Kaubre, the director of the State Forestry Company, speaks of a slightly different version: according to him, before transferring the state-owned areas, it is necessary to carry out an assessment of the property in them.

“We have both short-term and long-term assets,” 15 minutes said V. Kabure. “We are considering what to do if the areas are rented and the SFE is no longer necessary.”

It did not conduct an assessment of when the SFE will abandon the remaining 18 professional hunting areas.

Hunting Leaf Detective

After the January scandal, some politicians suggested that the hunting sheets be made public in Lithuania. However, this decision has come to a standstill.

Such deliberations were prompted by questions about who was actually involved in the scandalous hunt. Later, it became clear that there were influential representatives from politics and business, such as Rimantas Sinkevičius, a member of the Seimas “Social Worker”, and Zigmantas Balčytis, a former Social Democratic MEP.

Also participating were Jonas Jagminas, director of the cooperative of the Agroaves group, Gintautas Pangonis, the largest shareholder of Grigeo, Virginijus Kantauskas, co-owner of Biovela, Rolandas Valiūnas, founder of the Ellex Valiūnas law firm, and Arvydas Gribulis, one of the shareholders of the construction company of Fegda roads. others.

Some members of the Seimas suggested that electronic hunt sheets could be used to clarify the record of hunt participants.

K.Mažeika then claimed that such a decision could be implemented by the State Forestry Company itself and did not require amendments to the law.

Now the minister explains that there is no need for an electronic registration system, as the areas themselves will not be maintained in the long term.

“These are investments that would never pay off,” said K. Mažeika.

He assured that a decision on the publication of hunting sheets on paper was also not necessary, since state-owned areas were being abandoned.

Simonas Gentvilas, a member of the Seimas Environmental Protection Committee at the time and a representative of the opposition liberals, claims that the minister did not really seek any change.

“I think the minister just didn’t do anything.” 15 minutes said the politician.

The MP said that the minister’s arguments about the messy documents of the hunting areas, which prevent the privatization of these areas, are not convincing.

“I am not at all convinced, because then the minister had to admit that his institutions prevail dirty. (…) What is it dirty in the state, if you take money for the service of giving space for hunting, but you do not have the normal documents? ”Said S. Gentvilas.

“I don’t think he believed in his promises or wanted to keep them,” he added.

J.Slapšinskas has been released from liability

Last week, police announced that J. Lapšinskas, who shot the bison in January, would avoid conviction. He is exempt from criminal liability on bail.

Officials also investigated whether the environmentalists who investigated the politician’s misconduct had not committed the crime, but the investigation was terminated.

J.Slapšinskas was a suspect in the investigation that, due to criminal negligence, in violation of hunting rules that prohibit shooting at an unidentified target, he shot a female bison that was leading (feeding) a calf and therefore , caused significant damage to the protected species of wild animals included in the Lithuanian list of protected animals. Protection status.

During the pre-trial investigation, J.Slapšinskas admitted his guilt, compensated for a part of the damage caused to nature – more than 26 thousand. and the remaining approximately 10 thousand. committed to repay before November 2021.

On September 28, J.Slapšinskas and his wife submitted an application to the Panevėžys District Prosecutor’s Office requesting the release of the suspect from criminal responsibility on bail. J. Slapšinskas’s wife agreed to become a guarantor.

After assessing the data collected during the pre-trial investigation, the Public Prosecutor’s Office adopted a resolution to terminate the pre-trial investigation and requested the Panevėžys District Court to release J. Slapšinskas from criminal responsibility on bail.

On October 6, the court upheld the prosecutor’s ruling and decided to release Utena from criminal liability under bail, transferring her to bail responsibility for a period of 2 years. The politician was also sanctioned with a 2-year hunting ban.

Environmentalists did not commit crimes

Previously, on September 24, the prosecutor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Investigation Division of the Panevėžys Regional Prosecutor’s Office decided to terminate the pre-trial investigation in which two officials from the Panevėžys Department of Environmental Protection were suspected of They did not fulfill their duties explaining the circumstances of the bison hunt.

This pre-trial investigation began at the end of January this year, when representatives of the Department of Environmental Protection (hereinafter, the Department) under the Ministry of the Environment addressed the forces of order.

The latter asked to determine whether Alfredas Breivė, the head of the Panevėžys Wildlife Protection Inspectorate of the Panevėžys Department Board, and D.Š. duly performed his duties in the investigation of a hunt for females illegally hunted during professional hunting.

According to the representatives of the Department, if the mentioned environmentalists did not find that the bison shot was leading (feeding) the chick, it was estimated that the damage to the Protected Species and Habitats was 3 times less, for which the State suffered almost 25 thousand. euro damage.

On September 24, the prosecutor in charge of the pretrial investigation issued the decision to terminate the pretrial investigation.

The prosecutor concluded that A. Breivė, head of the Panev ofžys Wildlife Protection Inspectorate of the Panevėžys Board, had not sufficiently guaranteed the interests of the service in the performance of his duties. As a result, it was assumed that the incorrect determination of the damage caused by the female bison bullet and its game after the initiation of the administrative misconduct investigation could have caused significant harm to the state.

Since the actual damage was calculated when new circumstances arose, and J. Slapšinskas, who was hunting a female bison, admitted this amount of damage, did not question it, reimbursed most of it and promised to pay the remaining part within a year, it is not caused damage to the state.