VILNIUS - If necessary, Lithuanian prosecutors will launch an international search for Viktor Uspaskich, former leader of the Labor Party, who is currently hiding in Russia, Prosecutor General Algimantas Valantinas told reporters after a meeting with the president on Aug 10.
"This is part of a process, and if there is such a necessity (launch an international search), we will do so,"he said. Prosecutors are conducting an investigation into financial activities of the Labor Party, the largest Lithuanian parliamentary party. According to unofficial information, prosecutors have discovered Labor Party's "black accounting"; that reflects unlawful payments to not only members of the party but also parliamentarians of some other parties.
Prosecutors want to question Uspaskich and have sent him a summons to come to a prosecutor's office. However, Uspaskich left abroad some three months ago and has not returned yet. Prosecutors see such conduct of Uspaskich as hiding from law enforcement.
The prosecutor general did not comment on Uspaskich's and his colleagues'; statements about his distrust of Lithuanian law enforcement and the possibility that he might be put in prison upon returning home.
In Valantinas' words, the fear of the former Labor Party's leader that he may be put behind bars upon returning to Lithuania is as grounded as "fears of every ordinary citizen, who knows than there is a wide specter of penal measures for criminal deeds."
Prosecutors are conducting an investigation into Labor Party's fraudulent accounting, submission of false data on incomes and expenditure, and have brought suspicions against several persons.
"I am not sure about the number of such persons, but there are more than two," the prosecutor general said.
Not only individual members of the Labor Party but also the party as a legal entity are suspected of submission of false data on incomes, profit and property in an effort to evade taxes, and fraudulent accounting.
A legal entity that has committed the above offences may be imposed a fine, restriction of activities, or even termination of activities.
The Labor Party's parliamentary group is still the largest in the parliament, but, surrounded by scandals over non-transparent financial activities, it has failed to stay in the ruling coalition.
