VILNIUS - The Interior Ministry took a bold stand against Vytautas Grigaravicius, chief of Lithuania's police force and one of the country's most popular leaders, stating that he violated the law by failing to remove a compromised department head in a timely manner.
President Valdas Adamkus was reportedly shocked by the information.
Some suspect that Interior Minister Gintaras Furmanavicius launched this offense to prevent Grigaravicius from running for a second term.
Having learned that Erikas Kaliacius, the former Vilnius police chief, was found guilty of disgracing an officer's honor, was dismissed due to health problems, Furmanavicius launched an official investigation into the matter.
The minister was allegedly hoping to uncover an illicit agreement between the commissar general and police chief.
Last week the Interior Ministry closed the investigation. Its report concluded that Grigaravicius had violated a number of laws regulating official procedures.
But since Lithuania's legal framework does not grant the interior minister the right to assess the commissar general's actions, the report was forwarded to Adamkus and Prime Minister Algridas Brazauskas for a final decision.
The president, however, disagreed with the investigation's conclusions. In his opinion, Grigaravicius properly sought Kaliacius' dismissal. On top of that, the president emphasized that the Interior Ministry had made some mistakes as well. He urged ministry officials to take responsibility for gaps in the legal framework 's loopholes Grigaravicius took advantage off when leaving office.
"The health supervision office did not get an appropriate assessment," said the presidential spokeswomen Rita Grumadaite. "I want to remind people that this is also under the Interior Ministry's supervision."
Another concern of Adamkus was why the officer's report was revealed to the media before ending up on the president's desk.
Grigaravicius' tenure as commissar general ends in February 2006, prompting political analysts to question whether Furmana-vicius' campaign to discredit the police chief boil down to nothing more than mundane politics.
"Since Brazauskas became the prime minister, we have followed a consistent battle inspired by the interior ministers against Commissioner General Grigara-vicius," said Andrius Kubilius, leader of the Homeland Union and a former prime minister.
"Bernatonis [the former interior minister] battled, Bulovas [former interior minister] battled, and now Furmanavicius battles. The methods they use are becoming more and more ridiculous and therefore more desperate. The question remains 's what are the reasons?" Kubilius asked rhetorically.
Grigaravicius is famous for reopening old cases against Kaunas criminals and the bankruptcy of the EBSW concern.
Charged with embezzling over 81 million litas (23.5 million euros) worth of investors' funds, the EBSW concern was allegedly involved with both business people and politicians.
Kubilius implied that the former Brazauskas-led party LDDP had some relations with EBSW, so the prime minister is now interested in keeping the case in the closet.
"I'm not in love with Grigaravicius, despite his good performance in opinion polls," Kubilius said. "One doesn't need to have great insight to see the reasons why Grigaravicius bothers them."
The police chief is one of the most popular individuals in the country and has maintained stable public support for a couple of years, partly due to his tough stance against Kaunas criminals.
Currently Grigaravicius ranks second in opinion polls, with first place occupied by President Adamkus.
