Lithuania’s lack of justice

It was marred, through no fault of its own, by the failure to secure agreements with Ukraine at the Eastern Partnership summit.

Yet beneath the veneer of respectability, Lithuania hides a serious problem. And central to the problem is a person who is sometimes touted as the next head of the European Commission, the country’s president and former European commissioner, Dalia Grybauskaite.

Last July, I urged Lithuania to use its presidency to show itself a fair, modern democracy in which minority rights are respected and in which the separation of powers prevails.

The problem is the lack of justice, especially for the Russian minority. Neighbouring Finland is so concerned that it recently granted asylum to an ethnic Russian from Lithuania pressed by Lithuania’s State Security Department to spy against Russia. When he refused, he was arrested, charged with violence against his wife and children, and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The lack of justice is more serious in the case of Viktor Uspaskich. A successful businessman fed up with corruption in government, Uspaskich founded the Darbo (Labour) Party – a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe, of which I am the president – in 2003. Though he is an ethnic Russian, the number of ethnic Lithuanians supporting his party – 30% of those voting in national and European elections in 2004 – made him an immediate threat to the establishment.

For having the temerity to enter politics, Uspaskich has been accused of criminal wrongdoing related to the accounts of his party. He has been beaten by police officers (who cracked three of his ribs), had a grenade thrown into his house, and had his house and party headquarters raided by the police, exceeding their powers.

Citing just a few of the irregularities in his case is illustrative. The alleged offence is a matter of civil law, yet the prosecution is under criminal law. This criminal action was initiated not by the Prosecution Service but by the State Security Department, which even a Lithuanian parliamentary committee has said (in 2006) is influenced by business and political considerations. The charges are levelled against Uspaskich, who – as party chairman – signed off the accounts in 2004, rather than against the accountant who is the person legally responsible.

Though the case concerns irregularities over three years, no charges have been brought against the party’s ethnic Lithuanian chairmen in either of the other years.

Wikileaks’ revelations report a top Lithuanian official as saying in 2006 that the Lithuanian government is seeking to destroy the Labour Party. The autobiography of a former president, Valdas Adamkus, testifies to his concerns about the actions of the State Security Department in this case. Most worryingly, in view of her political ambitions at EU level, recent allegations by senior members of the judicial services about pressure from President Grybauskaite suggest that the head of state herself has little respect for the principle of separation of powers. In 2012, she intervened to prevent the newly elected Darbo Party from securing key ministerial positions in the coalition government; there are now reports of pressure from the president on the judicial establishment.

Experience in other EU countries from the former Soviet bloc shows that impressive economic reforms are not matched by adequate judicial reform. This, combined with serious prejudice against ethnic Russians in the Baltic states, has led to a major miscarriage of justice in Lithuania in which the head of state appears to be complicit.

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