Russia pledges to cooperate with Lithuania in Judex case, provides some answers

Some of the responses from Russia were received in November.

“Russia said it would comply with the request and notify us of the collected information additionally. We have received an interim answer now,” Rolandas Stankevičius, prosecutor of the Prosecutor General’s Office in charge of the investigation, told BNS.

The prosecutors have refused to comment on the data received from Russia. The information has to do with performance of Russian services and exports of the company’s production.

In August, the prosecutor told BNS that the Prosecutor General’s Office had turned to Russia with a request for legal assistance, however, did not receive any response for a long time. Russia should provide Lithuania with certain documents and results of questioning.

Furthermore, specialists in Lithuania have been assigned to conduct a financial inquiry at Judex. No conclusions have been received yet.

Lithuania’s Special Investigation Service suspects that Judex sought to influence the Lithuanian State Food and Veterinary Service via MP Petras Gražulis to avoid penalties for violations. In the probe, suspicions of influence peddling and abuse of powers have been brought against Jonas Milius, former chief of the service. The law-enforcement also suspect that the state food watchdog or subordinate institutions could have received information from Russia about discovery of listeria bacteria in Judex production, however, concealed the fact and did not take action.