HRMI states that by declaring the mayor of Vilnius a suspect in bribery scandal Special parliamentary Commission to investigate possible corruption in Vilnius municipality has violated the principle of presumption of innocence and potentially has prevented a justice in the case.
In the public statement issued on December 2, 2005, HRMI concludes that the Special parliamentary Commission has, in fact, taken decision to cover corrupted politicians. If the Prosecutor’s office will proceed with criminal prosecution of the mayor and others and the case reaches court, they will have a strong arguement that prosecutors and judges were influenced by the Parliament.
In accordance with the jurispudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Lithuanian criminal code, every person suspected in committing a crime should be brought to justice within a reasonable time. This ensures that the question of a guilt is examined in accordance with the strict procedural rules.
Lithuanian Constitution prohibits MPs to take part in criminal prosecution. Therefore, the Commission could not examine evidence in the case, as it did, but could give a political evaluation of the publicly available facts.
Full text of the public statement (in Lithuanian) find here.
© 2012 Human Rights Monitoring Institute