Antanas Kandrotas, nicknamed Cellofon, who is in prison for financial crimes, will be tried for possible influence on the policeman who testified in the riot case.
The prosecutor’s office transferred this criminal case to the Vilnius city district court, the first hearing of the case should take place this week.
“The pre-trial investigation into the alleged impact on the witness (according to Article 233 d. 1 of the Criminal Code) was started in 2023. in November, when after the trial of the “riot case” held in the district court of the city of Vilnius, the accused A. Kandrotas approached the witness (police officer) and, preventing the officer from going down the stairs in the court building, filmed him with a mobile phone, commented that he allegedly gave false testimony, which can be evaluated as a possible attempt to influence the police officer to give a different testimony,” said Gintarė Vitkauskaitė-Šatkauskienė, representative of the Vilnius District Prosecutor’s Office, to Eltai.
According to the Criminal Code, anyone who in any way sought to influence a witness, victim, expert, specialist or translator to give false testimony, conclusions, explanations or make incorrect translations during a pre-trial investigation, in a court or at the International Criminal Court or another international judicial institution, or prevented them from coming to a pre-trial investigation officer, prosecutor, court, or the International Criminal Court or another international judicial institution pursuant to a summons, shall be punished by public service or a fine, or restriction of liberty, or arrest, or deprivation of liberty for up to two years.
ELTA reminds that last November 2021 The Vilnius City District Court hearing the case of the riots near the Seimas questioned Vaidas Maziliauskas, an officer of the Chief Police Commissariat of Vilnius County, as the victim.
V. Maziliauskas, who worked in the Dialog group, told the court that after the riots, his image was shared on social networks, and it was indicated that he was allegedly a provocateur. As a result of these actions, the officer wants to claim 3 thousand. EUR non-pecuniary damage.
V. Maziliauskas, the representative of “Dialogo group” said that in 2021 August 10 the other day he was invited to the Seimas with his colleagues, he said that he helped the officers to maintain public order. The officer said he was wearing civilian clothes, wearing an armband with the inscription “Dialogue Group”. V. Maziliauskas claimed that when communicating with people, in order to calm them down, he repeatedly showed his police officer’s certificate.
I did not feel very safe for a certain period of time because of the residence of my family, minor children.
Police officer V. Maziliauskas was granted victim status in the riot case. He claimed that he was harmed by the use of his image without permission, for possible defamation. The witness noted that he noticed that people often filmed and photographed him during the rally near the Seimas.
“I suffered due to the publication of my photo with various posts, attachments, calls through social networks, slandering that I threw stones, that I provoked conflicts. It was very widely publicized and slandered,” V. Maziliauskas told the court.
According to him, after publishing his photos on social networks and other channels, he received many questions from his minor children, relatives, and acquaintances.
“A narrative was created that I am a provocateur, a rioter. I was asked to provide information about my place of residence on various channels,” explained V. Maziliauskas.
He said that he aims to claim 3 thousand in the case. EUR non-pecuniary damage. The officer noted that he felt stressed and suffered from insomnia due to his published photos.
V. Maziliauskas said that he received many messages on the Internet with accusations that he had caused, provoked riots, with insults. Also, as the man taught, he felt insecure when he saw that social networks offered a reward for revealing his whereabouts.
“I didn’t feel very safe for a certain period of time because of the place of residence of my family, minor children,” said the victim.
A. Kandrots filmed the victim after the court session, interviewed him, commenting that he gave false testimony and urged his followers to send him material where this policeman is allegedly untied.
“They demand 3 thousand euros from the lamp,” commented A. Kandrotas in the post.
Previously convicted A. Kandrotas is one of the accused in 2012. in the case of the riots near the Seimas.
The man had announced that he would take part in this year’s presidential elections, but the Supreme Electoral Commission had already twice refused to register him for the presidential election campaign, because the person could not open a bank account for the elections.
A. Kandrotas also announced that he had created the Mes Lietuva party with his comrades, but he did not submit the documents of the founding convention in time, so the Ministry of Justice decided that the party could not be registered.
