Visaginas mayor detained on suspicions of office abuse

Dalia Štraupaitė
DELFI / Kiril Čachovskij

Štraupaitė is a member of the Lithuanian Freedom Union (liberals).

Visaginas Vice-Mayor Elena Čekiene of the Social Democratic Party confirmed that Štraupaitė’s office was searched on Tuesday.

The Panevėžys unit of the Special Investigation Service has started an investigation into abuse of official powers at the Visaginas municipality on suspicions that the municipality’s employees in charge of repairs may have done renovation and other work on personal property of one of the municipality’s top officials.

Court sanctions arrest

The City Court of Panevėžys on Wednesday sanctioned the arrest of Dalia Štraupaitė.

Štraupaitė was elected mayor as a member of the Liberal and Centre Union but is now a member of the recently-founded party, the Lithuanian Freedom Union, after the Liberal and Centre Union merged with the new party led by Vilnius Mayor Artūras Zuokas. She also serves as the latter’s deputy.

The party’s executive secretary Žilvinas Šilgalis said on Wednesday that Štraupaitė’s party membership was suspended.

Aurelija Galisinskytė, a prosecutor in charge of the pre-trial investigation, told BNS that up to ten members of the municipal staff could have been exploited.

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