Butkevicius, released from prison on probation, said that he was quitting the legal committee of Parliament and moving to the parliamentary committee of human rights.
"It is a protest against the legal policy of Conservatives. I hope that working in [the human rights] committee will provide a better opportunity to influence the legal policies of Lithuania towards the provisions of the European convention on human rights and fundamental freedoms," Butkevicius said.
He said his lawyers appealed to the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, complaining about the unjustified imprisonment of the MP.
Butkevicius said that his imprisonment was a provocation aimed at averting his outspoken criticism of the policies of the ruling Conservative Party. He said Landsbergis inspired this provocation.
However, Butkevicius does not speak about the details of his criminal story and the arguments in the Vilnius court that sentenced him.
In the fall of 1997, the court sentenced him to five and a half years in jail and a fine of 50,000 litas ($12,500) on charges of large-scale attempted fraud. However, fresh amendments passed by the Conservative-led Parliament softened the criminal punishments for many categories of sentenced people. It facilitated scaling-down of Butkevicius' term to three and a half years.
On August 12, 1997, in Vilnius, Butkevicius was detained by officials of the State Security Department in the Draugyste hotel's restaurant with $15,000 he had taken from Klemensas Kirsa, the head of Dega Ltd.
Butkevicius took the money promising to mediate with officials helping to solve the financial problems of Kirsa's firm.
Butkevicius was demanding a total of $450,000 from Kirsa but later agreed to $300,000, the authorities from the prosecutor general's office said.
According to Prosecutor General Kazys Pednycia, the idea for the criminal agreements came from Butkevicius. Kirsa informed the State Security Department about this proposition and was acting as the department's agent afterwards. A meeting between Kirsa and Butkevicius was observed secretly and taped by officials of the State Security Department. Butkevicius said he wanted just to borrow the money for his own needs and was not demanding a bribe.
On the eve of his arrest in the fall of 1997, Butkevicius said many times he has documents proving that Landsbergis was co-operating with the KGB during Soviet times. That caused the provocation with Kirsa, said Butkevicius.
Landsbergis rejected these accusations, calling them nonsense. Butkevicius promised to show his legendary documents but never did.
On March 20, 2000, Butkevicius again made a suggestion that he did indeed possess such documents.
"The weather will become warmer, the ground will be not so cold and the documents will be dug out," Butkevicius said.
Currently this MP is the most wanted man by various TV political talk shows. Appearing on one such show, "The Last Crossroad," political analyst Kestutis Masiulis was quite skeptical about Butkevicius' extravaganza.
"There are the types of persons who step on other people's toes and demand excuses," Masiulis said, pointing to Butkevicius. He emphasized that Butkevicius did not like to speak about the essence of his criminal case but prefers to politicize it instead.
"Now every criminal will use attacks on Landsbergis as a defense tactic," Conservative MP Jurgis Razma said.
Butkevicius was defense minister from 1990 to 1993. He is the highest Lithuanian official ever accused of fraud.
The release on probation means that Butkevicius will have no right to participate in parliamentary elections this fall, since his prison term will not officially end until April, 2001.
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