Court again rejects parole for corruption-convicted former MP

Kaunas District Court on Thursday rejected parole for former Lithuanian lawmaker Vytautas Gapšys, LRT reported.

The court upheld a prosecutor’s complaint and refused to approve the Parole Commission’s decision to release Gapšys early from prison, court spokeswoman Inga Ramanauskaitė told the ELTA news agency. The ruling can be appealed to Kaunas Regional Court.

This is not the first time a court has rejected Gapšys’s parole. In June, the Kaunas District Court also ruled against his release. Gapšys appealed, and a three-judge panel at Kaunas Regional Court overturned that decision because of procedural violations, sending the matter back to the lower court.

The Parole Commission had recently approved Gapšys’s early release, saying he was serving an actual prison sentence for the first time and posed a low risk of reoffending. The commission also noted that he had worked as an assistant since 2024, provided consultancy on business management and public relations, and offered free legal services at a crisis management centre. He had received recognition for his voluntary work.

The commission said there was no evidence that Gapšys was connected to a criminal subculture or supported criminal behaviour. It also found that his dynamic criminogenic factors were manageable.

Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office challenged the commission’s decision, disputing its conclusions about Gapšys’s risk of repeated criminal behaviour.

Gapšys is serving his sentence at an open-type facility in Kaunas and returns to his family in Vilnius at weekends. He has more than a year and a half left to serve and will remain imprisoned until February 24, 2028, unless granted parole. The Supreme Court sentenced him to four years and three months in prison.

In 2023, the Lithuanian Court of Appeal found that Raimondas Kurlianskis, a former vice-president of the MG Baltic conglomerate, had asked Gapšys to use his position and influence as a member of parliament to affect other officials. The agreed illegal remuneration consisted of disguised bribes: a 12,100-euro discount on political advertising for the Labour Party and 15,000 euros in support for the public institution Art and Sports Projects.

The Labour Party, the Liberal Movement, the MG Group conglomerate, Kurlianskis and former MPs Eligijus Masiulis, Gintaras Steponavičius and Šarūnas Gustainis were also found guilty in the political corruption case. Gapšys, Kurlianskis and Masiulis received prison sentences.