Landsbergis testifies in MG Baltic probe

He said he was questioned by the Special Investigation Service about two weeks ago as a witness, adding he had been asked questions about his meeting with MG Baltic vice-president Raimondas Kurliankis, 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.

“I was asked about what I knew in general about what’s going on in connection to the investigation involving the Liberals and MG Baltic. My main explanation was that after being elected as the party’s leader in 2015 I had a series of meetings with various media figures, and one of them was the meeting (with Kurlianskis) and they found the information interesting,” Landsbergis told BNS.

He was first elected to head the party in May of 2015.

The conservatives’ leader says that he had met Kurlianskis and other media representatives to get to know them.

Last year, Lithuanian prosecutors opened an investigation into influence peddling and bribery. Eligijus Masiulis, the Liberal Movement’s former leader, is suspected of accepting a bribe of over 100,000 euros from Kurlianskis in exchange for the party’s operations for the benefit of the concern. In the framework of the probe, the Special Investigation Service said it suspected Kurlianskis of seeking to influence members of the Labor Party via the party’s member Vytautas Gapšys for bribes.

In late February, the law-enforcement brought bribery and influence peddling suspicions against MG Baltic concern as a legal entity. The concern denies the suspicions.