The committee made the decision at a closed meeting on Monday evening, Robertas Pogorelis, the European Parliament’s spokesman in Lithuania, confirmed to BNS.
The committee’s decision is yet to be approved by the European Parliament’s plenary session. According to Pogorelis, the parliament is scheduled to vote on Lithuanian prosecutors’ request for waiver of the immunity of Paksas on Wednesday.
Lithuanian prosecutors in the spring of 2016 asked the European Parliament to strip Paksas of his immunity so that they could bring suspicions of influence peddling against the former leader of the Order and Justice Party.
They suspect that Gedvydas Vainauskas, CEO of the media group Lietuvos Rytas, offered a 10,000-euro bribe to Paksas for pressuring construction inspectors to authorize the opening of a new Norfa retail store in Prienai, a town in southern Lithuania.
Both Paksas and Vainauskas have denied the allegations, branding the case as politicized.
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