The president has proposed allowing in absentia pre-trial investigation into all crimes that have caused major damage to the state or an individual.
Members of the parliament approved the bill for discussion by consensus. It will now go to parliamentary committees.
In the presentation of the draft law, presidential adviser Rasa Svetikaitė said that prosecutors would decide on grounds for an investigation in absentia.
The amendments would theoretically make it possible to judicial proceedings of former bankers Raimundas Baranauskas, Vladimir Antonov and Vladimir Romanov who are in hiding from Lithuanian law-enforcement.
Russia has granted political asylum to Baranauskas and Romanov, former shareholders of Snoras and Ūkio Bankas whom Lithuanian prosecutors want on trial for large-scale plundering.
Currently, investigations in absentia are only possible in cases of foreigners avoiding justice and escaping Lithuania and only for crimes of international character, such as terrorism, genocide, human trafficking and bribery.
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