Oksana Sakalauskienė arrested in Vijūnėlės manor corruption case

Oksana Sakalauskienė, a Vilnius resident sentenced to four years in prison in the Vijūnėlės manor corruption case, was arrested by Vilnius police on Tuesday, LRT reported. She had asked the Supreme Court of Lithuania to suspend the execution of her sentence, but the request did not prevent her arrest.

She is expected to be taken from the police station to Panevėžys Prison, where convicted women serve their sentences.

The Supreme Court has received Sakalauskienė’s cassation appeal and request to suspend the sentence until the case is considered, said Tautvilė Merkevičiūtė, a spokeswoman for the court’s president. The documents were received on Thursday, and no decision has yet been made on the request.

The court can suspend the execution of a sentence only in exceptional cases.

Sakalauskienė is the only defendant in the large-scale corruption case linked to the Vijūnėlės manor story to receive an actual prison sentence. She must also pay a 10,000 euro fine, while another 11,000 euros will be confiscated. Her husband, Ernestas Sakalauskas, was fined 60,000 euros. Other defendants must also pay fines.

The Vijūnėlės manor, which was declared an illegal structure, was demolished in autumn 2019.

Former Druskininkai Mayor Ričardas Malinauskas has said the manor was built for him. Its official owner was a businessman who was his friend, and the politician planned to buy the completed building from him.

The Lithuanian Court of Appeal concluded that Malinauskas and Aivaras Kadziauskas had been rightly convicted of influence peddling. It also found Sakalauskienė guilty of influence peddling and bribery in the Vijūnėlės manor case and three other cases, with some offences committed as part of an organised group. She was also convicted of attempting to trade in influence in cases concerning decisions by the Migration Department.

Ernestas Sakalauskas was convicted of influence peddling in the Vijūnėlės manor case as part of an organised group.

Protected witness linked Sakalauskienė to Malinauskas

Former lawyer Drąsutis Zagreckas, who cooperated with law enforcement and helped uncover the corruption offences, told investigators that Sakalauskienė had approached him to help with an appeal concerning the Vijūnėlės manor.

Zagreckas, who is now under state protection, said Sakalauskienė and her husband visited him and asked whether he knew any judges who could be approached about overturning a ruling by the Vilnius Regional Court. She also mentioned that the case was being heard by judge Henrichas Jaglinskis.

“It was clear that Oksana Sakalauskienė was acting in favour of Druskininkai Mayor Ričardas Malinauskas. When speaking about the case, she mentioned Ričardas Malinauskas. Oksana Sakalauskienė asked for the appeal to be granted, and if that was not possible, for the case to be returned to the first instance. She mentioned that 50,000 euros had been set aside for bribes,” Zagreckas told investigators in 2019.

He also said that Sakalauskienė brought the money to his office in Vilnius and that he handed 30,000 euros to Jaglinskis, then a judge in the Civil Cases Division of the Vilnius Regional Court. Jaglinskis later withdrew from the case, and another judge who heard it issued an unfavourable ruling.