An investigation into the proposals of the Presidency in submitting candidates for judges has been launched

The chairman of the council, Sigita Rudėnaitė, announced this at the meeting of the Council of Judges on Friday.

“The investigation has been initiated in accordance with the Prevention of Corruption Law by the central officer of our judicial system responsible for the prevention of corruption,” said S. Rudėnaitė.

She insisted that no authority should interfere in this investigation.

“I think that the investigation has not yet been completed, neither the Council of Judges nor any other entity has the right to interfere, because it would be understood as an attempt to influence that official, exerting influence,” asserted S. Rudėnaitė.

At the meeting of the Council of Judges, Justinas Bagdžius, the adviser to the director of the NTA, confirmed that the investigation into the appointment of specific persons to the positions of judges of the Vilnius City District Court has been launched.

“Yes, I can confirm that I, as the central entity responsible for the creation of a corruption-resistant environment, informed the Director of the National Judicial Administration and the Chairperson of the Council of Judges on March 4 that I, on my own initiative, began an assessment of certain public circumstances related to the latter selections for the district court of the city of Vilnius”, said J. Bagdžius.

According to him, during the investigation, the circumstances of the persons proposed and appointed by President G. Nausėda as judges of the district court of the city of Vilnius are analyzed, and it is clarified whether the provisions of the Law on Courts were possibly violated when presenting these candidates.

“This investigation is not an investigation of some violation or an explanation of responsibility, holding someone accountable. The circumstances are clarified, whether there were any possible violations of the provisions of the Law on Courts, which do not stipulate that applicants for the position of district court judge are to express the opinions of the president of the court or the court team. That law was recently adopted at the initiative of the President of the Republic of Lithuania. And the investigation was initiated taking into account the last two submissions to the district court of the city of Vilnius, when out of the three submitted candidates and already appointed judges, two were directly subordinate to the president of that court,” said the adviser to the director of the NTA.

Andrius Kabišaitis, chief adviser to President G. Nausėdas, claimed at the meeting of the Council of Judges that he had received information from the internal investigation of the NTA regarding the appointment of judges. According to him, one gets the impression that the aim is to find out whether the chairman of the Vilnius City Court (Viktorija Šelmiene – ELTA) could protect certain persons.

“The terminology used is that the chairwoman (of the court – ELTA) unjustifiably protected individual persons. I don’t know if it can be said that there is no violation,” said A. Kabišaitis.

The chairperson of the Council of Judges, S. Rudėnaitė, addressed A. Kabišaitis, emphasizing that such issues should not be discussed in closed meetings.

“What do you, dear Andriau, expect from this?” That the Council of Judges should do something after talking in a closed session?”, asked S. Rudėnaitė.

A. Kabišaitis replied that he closes the meeting of the Council of Judges and does not ask.

At that time, Danguolė Bublienė, a member of the Council of Judges, claimed that she believed that the council should get acquainted with the internal investigation of the NTA.

“In order to present what is being done, I think the Council of Judges has that right,” said D. Bublienė.

A member of the Council of Judges, a judge of the Supreme Court of Lithuania (LAT), Artūras Ridikas raised the question of whether J. Bagdžius, advisor to the director of the NTA, has the authority to conduct an internal investigation regarding the procedures for appointing judges.

“Does the officer have the authority to start an investigation?”, a member of the Council of Judges wondered.

J. Bagdžius, for his part, repeated that during the investigation we are simply trying to assess the situation, whether the procedure for selecting judges is not being discredited.

“Here, the situation is evaluated and it is checked whether that situation does not create conditions for discrediting the process of selection of judges, to assess what obstacles, what problems of legal regulation exist. (…) To date, that initial information has been collected and I imagine that at the next meeting of the Council of Judges, an assessment of my conclusions or recommendations on how to revise the legal regulation may be presented, maybe some recommendations have been submitted to the presidents of the district courts”, said the adviser to the director of the NTA .

A. Ridikas, a member of the Council of Judges, while continuing the discussion, raised the idea of ​​whether the council should, first of all, have authorized Mr. Bagdzis to undertake this kind of investigation. According to the judge, such investigations could only be conducted by a commission formed by the Council of Judges.

“At the very least, such investigations, when other institutions are involved, cannot be conducted under the authority of the Council of Judges. Another thing is the question of whether such investigations should be carried out by an official, given his powers. I think that a commission should be established to investigate such cases,” A. Ridikas taught.

He raised the question of whether the Council of Judges should stop the investigation initiated by Mr. Bagdius.

Danguolė Bublienė, a member of the Council of Judges, chairwoman of the LAT, speaking about the investigation, said that the council, if the process of appointing persons who have already been appointed to the positions of judges came under the scrutiny of the investigation, the Council of Judges, which approved the candidacies proposed by the president, may find itself in a strange situation.

“The investigation, no matter how it ends, discredits the Council of Judges itself. Because what happens here? Did the Council of Judges approve the persons who were protégés of the chairwoman?”, asked D. Bublienė.