Witnesses will continue to be interviewed in the Curonian Lagoon pollution case

As informed by the court, the questioning of the witness Jonas Garalias will continue until lunch, then the questioning of other witnesses will continue.

Jonas Garalis, the former head of the company’s production department, who testified at the hearing in October, said that the management and main shareholder Gintautas Pangonis of the cardboard production company Grigeo Klaipėda, which had been polluting the Curonian Lagoon for many years, knew about the company’s limited wastewater treatment capacity and its illegal discharge into the lagoon, but to invest in additional treatment did not meet the devices.

J. Garalis and the former head of the company Vidas Beržonskis are exempted from criminal liability in this case, the latter has already given evidence in court. Both men admitted to having organized the criminal acts indicted by the prosecutor’s office, including the release of incompletely treated sewage into the Curonian Lagoon.

In this case, accusations of abuse, falsification of documents and disposal of them, as well as violations of environmental protection rules were brought against the joint-stock company “Grigeo Klaipėda” and 14 other current and former employees of this company.

In the criminal case, which received a great response in the society, in which the indictment consists of more than 300 pages, the shareholder and chairman of the board of Grigeo group G. Pangonis, the current manager of the Klaipėda company Tomas Eikinas, three previous managers of this company and other persons were recognized as defendants.

This large-scale case contains more than 20,000 documents, data of interviewed suspects, witnesses, conclusions of various experts, additional documents and other data relevant to the investigation.

The Environmental Protection Department determined the property damage caused to nature, and filed a civil lawsuit against the company for more than 48 million euros.