Nausėda defends decision not to appoint Misiūnas as judge

President Gitanas Nausėda says he does not consider it a mistake to apply a “political cooling-off period” and refuse to appoint former Interior Minister Eimutis Misiūnas as a judge, LRT reported. The Vilnius Regional Court was due to issue a ruling on Friday in a civil case in which Misiūnas is seeking recognition that the president’s conduct was unjustified.

“I simply cannot admit that, because Mr Misiūnas directly took part in elections and directly engaged in party activities. It is difficult for me to reconcile that with the possibility of putting on a judge’s robe almost the next day,” Nausėda told reporters when asked whether he considered his decision a mistake.

“Let us also remember that the president is not a notary who approves every judicial candidate submitted to him,” he added. Nausėda said that he is sometimes presented with several candidates for a position and that those who receive the highest scores from a selection commission do not necessarily have to be appointed.

The civil case was reopened by the Vilnius Regional Court on the instruction of the Supreme Court of Lithuania, after the latter took into account a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in Misiūnas’s favour last October.

National courts had previously refused to accept Misiūnas’s claim, finding that some of his demands could not be examined by a court and that other parts contained formal deficiencies which he had failed to correct within the deadline. The European Court of Human Rights found a violation and awarded the former minister 10,000 euros in compensation for non-pecuniary damage last year.

Misiūnas appealed to the Strasbourg court after Nausėda rejected his December 2020 request to be appointed as a judge. The president justified the decision by citing a “political cooling-off period”.

Two years later, Nausėda agreed to return Misiūnas to the judiciary and sought the advice of the Council of Judges, which responded positively. Despite this, the president again did not appoint him. The decision followed Misiūnas’s statement that he would consider taking up a political position again if offered one.

Misiūnas, who served as interior minister and deputy defence minister in the government from 2016 to 2020, says he views the president’s actions as persecution for exercising freedom of speech.