Lithuanian parliament refuses to strip Grazulis of MP immunity

  • 2017-03-21
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS – Lithuania's parliament on Tuesday refused to allow prosecution of MP Petras Grazulis of the Order and Justice party over picket outside the home of prosecutor Irmantas Mikelionis.

The resolution against the call from Prosecutor General Evaldas Pasilis to strip Grazulis off his legal immunity was supported by 67 parliamentarians against 45, with six abstentions.

The resolution to leave Grazulis with his legal immunity was proposed by a Seimas panel after examination of a plea from Pasilis.

Grazulis, together with Kestas Komskis and Valdas Vasiliauskas, who at that time were also members of the Order and Justice political group at the parliament, staged the picket outside Mikelionis' home after the prosecutor said that he would ask the European Parliament to strip MEP Rolandas Paksas, who was then the party's leader, of his immunity in a suspected corruption case.

The MP has already been questioned as a special witness in the case, while suspicions were already brought against Komskis and Vasiliauskas. In the prosecutor general's words, Grazulis' actions were aimed at making psychological pressure upon the prosecutor, hindering the investigation and influencing the course of the probe.