MP Bastys won’t step down even if probe finds he poses threat to National security

“I believe I won’t. Let’s wait and see what happens next,” he told reporters when asked if he would give up his MP mandate if the National Security and Defence Committee‘s findings were unfavorable to.

According to the lawmaker, if the committee concludes after its probe that his contacts with certain people pose a threat to national security, that will be a political reprisal against him.

“Am I a threat to national security? Did I act against the interests of Lithuania? I think if the conclusion says so, that will be trampling over human rights. I regard this as a political reprisal,” he said.

The parliament asked the committee to look into Bastys’ ties after Viktoras Pranckietis, the speaker of the Seimas, had declined to give the lawmaker access to classified information, based on material gathered by the State Security Department.

The parliament has initiated Bastys’ impeachment, but a special commission set up for this purpose has suspended its investigation until the Committee on National Security and Defence finishes its probe.

The material provided by the Security Department points to Bastys’ ties with Yevgeny Kostin, who is seen as a representative of Rosatom, Piotr Voyeiko, a former KGB agent, Ernest Matskevich, a journalist of the Russian state channel RTR, Saturnas Dubininkas, who is said to be a former Kaunas mafia leader, and Vadim Pakhomov, a businessman suspected of illegal activity.