“I am convinced that the target of this investigation is not the Department of State Security (VSD), not any procedures of the VSD, but the target is the acting president,” Andrius Mazuronis told Žinių radio on Friday.
“The goal is to start the election campaign, to divert attention from real problems, to aim for the president’s behavior to be the dominant theme during the political campaign, whether he exceeded or did not exceed his powers,” he asserted.
According to A.Mazuroni, this story was already examined three years ago by the National Security and Defense Committee of the Seimas, the General Prosecutor’s Office, and the Special Investigation Service, and no violations were found.
“A few years passed, someone printed a publication and the start of the presidential campaign came. Politicians appeared in this place, who once again came up with the idea of conducting a presidential (election – BNS) campaign through temporary investigative commissions,” said the politician.
“There are no new facts that were unknown three years ago. I then question why the push for a parliamentary inquiry is being initiated now. It is obvious that this is politicking,” he said.
According to A. Mazuronis, although the parliamentary investigation is initiated by Vytautas Bakas, a member of the opposition Democratic faction “Vardan Lietuvos”, he is in favor of the ruling party.
“This is nothing more than the probably intensive start of the presidential election campaign and an effort to divert attention from the problems of the ruling party. We just talked about the problems of education, there are many more problems in the health sector: look, make an appointment with any specialist doctor – half a year ahead, when you go to the clinic, empty corridors, there is no one, an absurd situation, also – the economic situation, inflation, social inequality, income inequality,” claimed the “worker”.
According to him, those in power do not want to talk about these problems during the next year’s elections.
“This is an attempt to cover up our inaction with another scandal,” he claimed.
A. Mazuronis hoped that the Seimas would not approve the establishment of a temporary investigation commission, because, according to him, such an investigation would be harmful to the state.
On Thursday, the Seimas collected the necessary signatures to initiate a commission of inquiry into the actions of VSD leaders in checking the environment of G. Nausėda, who was a candidate in the presidential elections.
The draft resolution was signed by 39 parliamentarians, mainly representatives of the governing conservatives, Liberal Movement, Laisvė, opposition Democratic Union “Vardan Lietuvos” factions.
At least 36 MPs’ signatures are required to initiate an investigation. After collecting them, the draft will be submitted to the Seimas, which will make the final decision on the parliamentary investigation.
The Commission is proposed to clarify possible illegal collection of information about individuals, possible illegal influence on intelligence activities, possible interference in election processes during the 2019 presidential elections, possible illegal support for this campaign, possible violations of the rights of whistleblowers, possible illegal influence in imposing sanctions on Belarus.
The Commission should find out about which candidates in the 2019 presidential elections and what information was collected by the Department of State Security, whether it received such requests from candidates and their representatives, what information was collected and what it was used for.
The commission would also investigate whether SEB bank customer data was used in the presidential election campaign of any candidate, or whether employees, managers, and customers of this bank were influenced to support specific candidates, if so, by whom and in what way such influence was exerted.
The financing costs of presidential election campaign candidates would be explained, comparing them with the results of election campaign monitoring. The question is whether G. Nausėda, who won the election, or his staff members and advisers were influenced by persons involved in the Belarusian fertilizer business, what was their role during the campaign.
The Commission should also find out what specific actions were taken by the Special Investigations Service and the General Prosecutor’s Office after receiving the information provided by the whistleblower to the National Security and Defense Committee, what decisions were made, and if not, for what reasons.
It is proposed to finish the research of the projects in January of next year, to ensure that the meetings and surveys of the commission are public.
The initiative to convene the commission arose after the prosecutor’s office stated in the spring of this year that the intelligence officer’s report to the chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Seimas about the actions of the VSD leadership submitted four years ago was improperly examined.
The material submitted by the speaker was examined in the Seimas in the previous term. In 2019, a VSD official appealed to the then chairman of the Seimas NSGK, V. Bakas, complaining to his managers about possible illegal activities.
This story is described in the book “The Speaker and the President” by investigative journalists Dovydas Pancerov and Birutė Davidonytė. The former official claimed to journalists that in July 2018, he received several sheets with many names and a verbal order “to check the election team and the list of possible supporters of one candidate” from the deputy director of the department, Remigijaus Bridikis. As it turned out, the supporters and associates of the then presidential candidate G. Nausėda were specified in it.
The NSGK of the Seimas, which then examined the situation, stated that the VSD acted legally by checking the environment of the presidential candidates, but called on them to refuse verbal orders in such situations.
In 2019, the reporter also applied to the Special Investigation Service, after a few days the information was transferred to the General Prosecutor’s Office.
In January 2020, V. Bakas received a response from the prosecutor’s office that the Special Investigation Service “did not detect any criminal acts or official misconduct” in this story, but the response did not state what procedural decision was made – whether to initiate or refuse to initiate a pre-trial investigation, the book says.
VSD representatives claimed to have checked the teams of all presidential candidates, the reporter himself assured that only G. Nausėda’s surroundings were checked, and R. Bridikis confirmed to him that the lists were received from G. Nausėda himself. The president categorically denies that he asked the VSD to check his team.
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