Skvernelis to stop wearing ankle monitor as bail is imposed

Lithuanian MP Saulius Skvernelis will no longer have to wear an electronic ankle monitor after prosecutors decided not to ask a court to extend the measure, LRT reported. He will instead be subject to a written undertaking not to leave the country, financial bail and a continuing ban on contacting certain people.

The ankle monitor, a form of intensive supervision, was imposed in July in a case involving suspected bribery at the Plant Protection Service. Skvernelis had argued that it interfered with his work in parliament. Courts at all levels rejected his complaints about the measure.

Vilnius Regional Court judge Mindaugas Povilanskas said investigators had found that Skvernelis breached an earlier, less restrictive measure by communicating with another suspect. The court had therefore considered the stricter measure justified, as well as its previous extension.

Investigators searched Skvernelis’s home and parliamentary office in February, and he was formally suspected of bribery in April.

The investigation into suspected corruption at the Plant Protection Service began last December. Authorities initially detained 13 people, and the number of suspects later rose to 17. Investigators say representatives of companies transporting plants and plant products were systematically asked for and paid large bribes in exchange for phytosanitary certificates.

More than 100 searches yielded over 1.3 million euros in cash and eight kilograms of gold valued at about one million euros, as well as cigarettes, alcohol, cocaine and explosives. In September, a court extended the detention of Marijanas Taraškevičius, the only suspect in the case still being held.