Investigator reprimanded for leaking info to press

  • 2005-02-09
  • By The Baltic Times
VILNIUS 's An agent from the Special Investigation Service who handed records of wiretapped conversations to the media has reportedly received a stern reprimand, SIS officials said.

Special Investigation Service chief Povilas Malakauskas said in a statement that he has imposed a penalty on the agent after the latter admitted his guilt during an inhouse investigation of the incident.

The agent was not dismissed.

The agent admitted to sharing records of conversations between Vilnius Mayor Arturas Zuokas with Rubicon Group CEO Andrius Janukonis. On Wednesday TV3 reported that an anonymous person had called journalists to say that a tape containing records that would allegedly compromise Zuokas had been left for them near the channel's head office. The tape, as it turned out, contained wiretapped conversations between the mayor and several business people that had previously been disclosed to the court as part of materials in the case on the 2003 mayoral elections.

The agent did not inform his bosses at the Special Investigation Service about this and had apparently acted alone out of outrage by the recent acquittal of Zuokas and Janukonis in the case.

The materials of investigation conducted by the Special Investigation Service will be handed over to the Prosecutor General's Office.

Deputy Prosecutor General Gintaras Jasaitis told the Respublika daily that the Prosecutor General's Office would decide whether to act after it receives an opinion from the Special Investigation Service. An investigation could be launched if the agent's conduct is found to qualify as a criminal offence rather than just disciplinary breach.