Visockis asks appeal court to overturn conviction in expense-receipt case

Former Marijampolė deputy mayor Artūras Visockis says he did not commit a crime and wants Lithuania’s Court of Appeal to overturn his conviction in a case involving municipal expense receipts, LRT reported, citing ELTA. His lawyer argued that criminal liability was no longer justified, while a prosecutor urged the court to reject the appeal.

“I do not feel that I committed a crime,” Visockis told the court several times, without elaborating. His appeal asks for him to be acquitted.

Lawyer Giedrius Danėlius said Visockis should not face criminal prosecution in light of outcomes in other expense-receipt cases and argued that his conduct had lost its dangerousness. He compared the issue of legal responsibility to adultery, saying: “We all know that adultery is not allowed, but that does not mean it can be punished.” Danėlius said the prohibition had existed since Lithuania’s Christianisation in 1387.

Prosecutor Saulius Verseckas disagreed, saying adultery could lead to sanctions from a spouse or be grounds for divorce, and that a moral norm could also be a legal category.

Danėlius also argued that the Marijampolė district municipal council’s rules had not been published in the register of legal acts and therefore were not in force. He said politicians’ salaries had since been increased and they could plan their expenses without submitting reports. Visockis had repaid the money, he added, and the municipality’s administration had not sought damages.

The lawyer cited the Supreme Court’s acquittal of former Jonava district mayor Mindaugas Sinkevičius in a similar case and its remarks that criminal liability should be a last resort.

Verseckas asked the court to dismiss the appeal. He said Visockis knew he was falsifying documents and had submitted 23 expense summaries involving different types of fuel. The repeated submission of other people’s receipts showed deliberate, systematic conduct rather than a mistake, the prosecutor argued. He said Visockis had sought to obtain public funds by deception and that repaying the municipality did not remove his liability.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal is due to announce its decision on November 19. The ruling will then become final.

Last December, the Kaunas Regional Court fined Visockis 5,000 euros and barred him for three years from being elected or appointed to public office. It found him guilty of fraud, abuse of office and document forgery, in a case concerning the alleged misappropriation of 3,400 euros in municipal funds.

Visockis currently works as an adviser to Marijampolė’s acting mayor, Valdas Tumelis. He and other deputy mayors had to leave their posts after a conviction in former mayor Povilas Isoda’s expense-receipt case became final in July.