EP committee suggests stripping Lithuanian MEP Uspaskich of legal immunity

The EP will vote on the committee recommendation during its plenary session on 19 May.

“The committee recommended not to defend Uspaskich’s immunity,” Robertas Pogorelis, spokesman for the EP, told BNS.

In August 2013, Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office launched a pre-trial investigation in Uspaskich’s statements about judges then hearing his Labour Party‘s fraudulent bookkeeping case. The politician then called the judges criminals and cowards.

In late March, the EP lifted Uspaskich’s legal immunity in a separate fraud and fraudulent bookkeeping case. The case is now being heard by the Court of Appeals of Lithuania.

Uspaskich denies his guilt and says he’s a victim of political persecution.