Prosecutor reveals corruption accusations against Gapšys

In a latter to the Seimas (parliament) asking for Gapšys’ legal immunity to be stripped, Prosecutor General Evaldas Pašilis wrote that Gapšys tried to influence deliberations on amendments to the Law on Profit Tax and the Seimas vote on a Vilnius-Utena highway project at the parliament.

“The evidence that has thus far been gathered in the pretrial investigation gives reasonable assurance that, during meetings that took place in Vilnius between September 28, 2015, and January 22, 2016, Gapšys, acting for his own benefit and the benefit of others, made promises to Raimondas Kurlianskis, vice-president of MG Baltic concern, and agreed to take and took a bribe of €25,000”, the letter said, adding that the bribe had been given for “the adoption of political decisions favorable and beneficial for MG Baltic concern, i.e. for influencing his party members’ and personal voting at the parliament when deliberating draft amendments to the Law on Profit Tax and the Seimas resolution on the Vilnius-Utena highway”.

Gapšys denies all suspicions and says there are no reasons to strip him of legal immunity.

“I’ve received that text and we’ve starting looking at the laws mentioned there and, when one of those laws was being adopted, I was abroad and the votes of our parliamentary group are different, the majority of the MPs in our group abstained and some voted. Hence we do have certain questions, which we aren’t able to answer now, and we don’t understand what they mean in that letter,” Gapšys told the reporters at the Seimas on Tuesday.

Prosecutors seek to prosecute Gapšys in a pretrial investigation for alleged serious crimes involving political corruption, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported on Monday.

As part of the same investigation, bribery suspicions have already been brought against Eligijus Masiulis, ex-leader of the Liberal Movement and ex-MP.