“A special investigative commission has been created for me, a book has been written, and a temporary commission is being created on the basis of this book, the head of which does not even have the authority to work with classified information. This temporary commission is illegal from the very beginning,” the head of the country said in an interview with LNK news on Wednesday.
The Seimas formed a temporary commission of inquiry to clarify the story of the VSD speaker in October, and it must submit its conclusions by March 10.
The commission is headed by V. Bakas, a representative of the “Vardan Lietuvos” Democratic faction, who served as the chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Seimas in the previous term. It consists mainly of ruling conservatives, representatives of the Liberal Movement and the Freedom faction. The opposition, with the exception of the Democrats, did not delegate its members to the commission.
V. Bakas: even a lower level permit is sufficient
For his part, V. Bakas claimed to BNS on Wednesday that he has the right to work with restricted information, which is sufficient for the commission to explain possible violations.
“The President can rest easy, my right to work with classified information, which is of “limited use” for every member of the Seimas, is sufficient for conducting this investigation. I do not need it at a higher level, because according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to the laws of Lithuania, investigations of violations cannot be classified. The president should understand that,” said the MP.
“When a state begins to cover up violations, regardless of who the officials are, the democracy of such a state is at great risk,” he said.
V. Bakas claims that he had a temporary permit to work with material of a higher level of secrecy, marked “secretly”, in the previous term, when he was the head of the NSGK, and he did not renew it because there was no need. However, the parliamentarian confirmed that he applied again some time ago for the renewal of such a permit and said that he has no doubt that he will receive it.
“Now I received a letter from the Seimas office staff stating that I should request to renew the permit, as information with higher restricted use marks has been submitted to the commission. This is what I submitted last week. (…). I have no doubt that the permit will be issued, but I do not think that the commission should rely on classified information, because violations cannot be classified, hidden from the public: interference in elections, financing, providing data cannot be classified, it is illegal. Therefore, I don’t see the point, the need to receive classified information,” said the member of the Seimas.
According to him, if it turns out that part of the information necessary for the commission is unreasonably classified, “while hiding a crime or violation of the law”, it will be requested to declassify it.
On Wednesday, the representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office invited to the commission called for closed meetings, and for V. Bakas to recuse himself from the investigation, since he was the first to learn about the reporter’s story and did not introduce the material to the committee, besides, he himself may be questioned by the commission. V. Bakas said that he did not agree with both demands.
Promises to clarify unanswered questions
Proponents of the temporary commission’s investigation argue that the speaker’s story left unanswered questions, while opponents claim that it would be directed against the head of the country, G. Nausėdas, in order to undermine his popularity in the run-up to the presidential elections in the spring of 2024.
The initiative to create the commission arose after the prosecutor’s office stated in the spring of this year that the intelligence officer’s report to the then chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee 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.
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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2024-08-20 16:49:35
