V. Sutkus: I have not given or accepted any bribe to anyone.

“I have not given or accepted any bribe to anyone,” he told reporters on Wednesday after the Vilnius City District Court hearing.

The court did not grant the prosecutor’s request to arrest V. Sutka.

He claimed to have received suspicions about his own activities as head of the LVK and as a consultant.

“I have to admit that I feel better today than yesterday. The sad thing is that, as it turned out, both in my case and in the case of my colleague Mantas (Zalatorius – BNS), there have been other cases of business representation and of being the head of a business organization in Lithuania that is already becoming physically dangerous, ”said V. Sutkus.

“It just came to our attention then. One of the accusations sounds like this, I quote from memory: V. Sutkus, while committing a criminal act, collected negative information about the then Minister of Transport and Communications Rokas Masiulis and disseminated that information during a conference of press and in other ways, “said the president of the Lithuanian Business Confederation.

V. Sutkus admitted that he had repeatedly criticized R. Masiulis, but stated that he had not collected information on him, only analyzed the activities of the Ministry of Transport and Communications and its subordinate institutions.

He criticized R. Masiulis

“I think it’s a matter of attitude. This is probably true, because, in fact, I have repeatedly criticized both Rock Masiul himself and the people he names, mismanagement, inability to use appropriations and associated poor health. certain infrastructure companies, economic situation. I said that, but they were objective data. Yes, they are unfavorable for Mr. Masiulis, “said V. Sutkus.

“I did not collect information on Masiulis, I analyzed data on the activities of the Ministry of Transport and Communications and its subordinate bodies, such as the Highway Administration, budget execution and the like. It is the activities of the ministry, not Mr. Masiulis” , said.

According to him, the information was collected due to the “bad situation in the sector”.

“It just came to our attention then. It is in the sector managed by the Ministry of Transport, which has put companies in a bad economic situation as a result, the workers have been fired and these are our members. For example, the association” Lietuvos keliai “are our members and have also spoken repeatedly about the poor state of the sector,” said V. Sutkus.

Girius Ivoška, ​​a lawyer representing the LVK president, said that the right to criticize politicians is enshrined in the Constitution and that persecution for criticism is prohibited.

“In fact, the right to criticize is guaranteed by article 33 of the Constitution. The second sentence of the second part of that article establishes that it is prohibited to pursue criticism,” emphasized G. Ivoška.

“In this case, I would say, because there is a wording that says that such information damaged political reputation, so the question is: if a politician is criticized, we are not talking about slander, not fiction, created things, not some personal intrusion in private life. ” . We are talking about ministry performance analysis, statistical analysis, sector. If a politician is responsible for that sector, then his criticism is guaranteed by the Constitution. We believe that it is unconstitutional to criminalize criticism, “he said.

I don’t know about 400,000 Eur

When asked about the 400,000 euros mentioned by the police, whose origin will be determined, V. Sutkus said he knew nothing about such sums of money and said that the police had found less than 10,000 euros in his home.

“I don’t know what 400,000 euros they are talking about … Some money was found at home. Less than 10,000 euros,” he said.

“We do not see the amount mentioned in the media in the report on suspicions. I do not understand what you are talking about when this amount is mentioned,” said G. Ivoška, ​​a lawyer.

For more information on the pre-trial investigation, the lawyer representing V. Sutkus said he could provide it later and argued that some of the charges against his defendant were made in a very abstract way.

“At the moment, I think we will be able to go into detail both during interviews and in media conversations as the investigation progresses,” Ivoška said.

“Because circumstances may change when something is highly formulated there in the abstract, say, for example, Seimas members, there are no last names. We are waiting for more precise data to find out exactly how much we want to ask during the pre-trial investigation.” , said.

V. Sutkus said that he had been detained at his home and stated that he had turned over all requested documents to the police.

“I gave the STT in good faith all the documents they asked for,” he said.

So far, the office is in progress.

The LVK president declared that he would continue to hold this position, but stressed that the decision on his future belongs to the members of the confederation. According to him, this decision will be made in the near future.

“I have not yet received any restrictions, it will depend on the members of the confederation here, I am elected,” said V. Sutkus.

According to G. Ivoska, your accused should receive a more lenient detention measure: a written commitment not to leave, and the right to communicate with certain people may also be restricted.

“As the prosecutor told us, a preventive detention will be imposed, a written commitment not to leave. (…) A separate paragraph may impose the obligation not to communicate with certain people. If he will be with whom he will be, he has not yet done so. We only know what is said in the text, whether it is forbidden to communicate with someone or not, “said G. Ivoška.

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