“We can confirm that he has arrived for questioning,” the service’s spokeswoman Renata Saulytė told BNS on Thursday.
Mockus is being questioned in a political corruption case where influence peddling, bribery and unlawful enrichment suspicions have been brought against the former leader of the opposition Liberal Movement Eligijus Masiulis, while MG Baltic vice-president Raimondas Kurlianskis is suspected of bribery, influence peddling and unlawful possession of a state secret.
In an earlier interview to BNS, Mockus has described the political corruption scandal as the biggest blow to the company’s reputation, adding it did not have a direct impact on the business. He said there were no reasons to suspend Kurlianskis, the head of the group’s media operations, from his post, stressing that the media channels of the group would not be used for defence in the investigation.
In Mockus’ words, he was not persuaded by the motives of the corruption crime presented by prosecutors. He said the probe was linked to the upcoming general elections.
Law enforcement officials suspect that Masiulis accepted a bribe of €106,000 for himself and other individuals from Kurlianskis in exchange for “certain decisions favourable and financially beneficial” to MG Baltic.
Masiulis says that he borrowed €90,000 from Kurlianskis as a loan for a real estate project in Nida. The loan was not notarized.
Kurlianskis is the chairman of the management board at the Laisvas ir Nepriklausomas Kanalas Group, the operator of several TV channels, and at Alfa Media, the operator of the Alfa.lt news portal. Lithuanian law-enforcement agencies have banned Mockus and Kurlianskis from contacting each other.
Romanas Raulynaitis, a member of the management board at MG Baltic, was also questioned as special witness in the case. Under Lithuanian laws, special witness status is accorded to individuals when there is no sufficient evidence to prove their complicity in a crime.
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