The appointment was supported in a secret ballot 106 against 11 with 10 abstentions.
Pašilis, 42-year-old judge from Ukmergė, is the third candidate proposed for the post by President Dalia Grybauskaitė since June when the term of the previous prosecutor general Darius Valys expired.
The Seimas has previously rejected the nominations of Edita Dambrauskienė and Nerijus Meilutis. President Grybauskaitė said after the last rejection in October that she would not put forward another candidate before the 2016 general elections.
However, after consultations with parliament, Grybauskaitė nominated Pašilis, who has been working as a judge for 15 years and chaired the Ukmergė District Court between 2007 and 2012.
“I have not worked as a prosecutor, but for over 15 years I have been doing a job which is closely related to the work of prosecutors. I’ve seen all sides of this job. I do not think I am a total outsider,” Pašilis told reporters on Tuesday.
“First, I would like to get to know the staff [of the Prosecutor General’s Office], many of whom I’ve only seen on television. I would like to get to know the situation, since one cannot talk from the stand at the Seimas before getting to know the situation,” he commented on his immediate plans at the office.
President Grybauskaitė said after the vote that the Prosecutor General’s Office is up for major shake-ups.
“Well finally! It is good that the country will have a prosecutor general who will tackle the chronic problems of the office and will be able to launch institutional reforms,” Grybauskaitė said. “The new prosecutor general has a lot of important tasks ahead: to modernize the institution, mobilize the staff, to improve the quality of pre-trial investigations and responsibility, to defend public interest and, certainly, improve the public’s trust in the Prosecutor General’s Office.”
She added that there should be a wave of rotations among prosecutors.
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