Seimas lifts MP Pūkas’ immunity

Some 74 parliamentarians voted in support of stripping him of his immunity, one was against and five abstained.

In an address to his colleagues before the ballot, Pūkas urged the parliamentarians to think well, as any of them could end up in a situation like his. The MP accentuated having committed no criminal deed, adding that the offenses were insignificant. Pūkas emphasized that none of the circumstances led to a conclusion that his actions were wrong or against the law. In his words, the girls who later accused him of sexual harassment went to the Seimas hotel to see the computer hardware installed there.

At the end of June, Lithuania’s prosecutor general turned to the Seimas with a request to lift Pūkas’ legal immunity.

They say that four women’s testimonies and information gathered as part of the pre-trial investigation provide reasonable grounds to suspect that Pūkas between January and February 2017 sexually harassed persons subordinate to him.

The Seimas has also launched impeachment proceedings against the lawmaker.

The process has been paused pending the Constitutional Court‘s opinion on whether he violated the Constitution.

Pūkas won his MP mandate on the Order and Justice party’s list.