Katelynas says Liubajevas may have to leave post over border incident

Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas said he would see no possibility for Rustamas Liubajevas to remain head of the State Border Guard Service if reports about a late-July border incident are confirmed, LRT reported.

Media reports said irregular migrants tried to drag a border guard into Belarus during the incident, but that the officer managed to free himself.

Katelynas said he met with the prosecutor general on Friday to discuss the reported circumstances and the need for a comprehensive, objective and impartial pretrial investigation. He said prosecutors should assess whether the investigation should be transferred from the State Border Guard Service to another competent institution. The decision will be made independently by the prosecution, he said.

“If the circumstances made public in the media were confirmed, I would not see the possibility for R. Liubajevas to continue serving as head of the State Border Guard Service,” Katelynas wrote on Facebook.

Prime minister urges caution

Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius urged officials not to rush to conclusions about the service’s leadership and said the question of Liubajevas’ responsibility was premature.

He said the incident had become surrounded by various interpretations and that an official inspection commissioned by the interior minister should establish what had happened.

“I would wait for an objective, transparent and clear answer after the official investigation, without turning this into politics,” Sinkevičius told reporters. He said the investigation should determine what was done properly, whether there were mistakes, what needed to be corrected and whether anyone was responsible.

According to the prime minister, assessments of the State Border Guard Service leadership should be made only after the findings have been documented.

Reports of an attempted abduction

The Lrytas news portal, citing sources, reported that migrants tried to drag a border guard towards Belarus during the late-July incident.

The report said a scuffle broke out between border guards and migrants who had emerged from a tunnel, during which one Lithuanian officer was beaten. It also said the officer whom the migrants allegedly tried to pull into Belarus managed to escape.

Vitalijus Jagminas, head of the Vilnius County Pretrial Investigation Institutions Trade Union, told the portal that the officer was reportedly on sick leave.