Court rejects Gaigalaitė appeal in paramedic murder case

Lithuania’s Court of Appeal has rejected Justina Gaigalaitė’s appeal against her detention in the murder investigation into paramedic Mantas Sadauskas, LRT reported, citing the ELTA news agency. She will remain in custody until January 21.

The court overturned one of the grounds cited by the Panevėžys Regional Court, finding that the claim she could obstruct the proceedings if released should not stand. The remaining grounds — that she might flee, hide or commit new crimes — remain in effect. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.

In mid-October, the Panevėžys Regional Court granted a prosecutor’s request to extend Gaigalaitė’s detention by three months. The General Prosecutor’s Office has also rejected requests to transfer the investigation to another prosecution office.

One of Gaigalaitė’s lawyers, Vytautas Sirvydis, told ELTA he would continue challenging the decision not to transfer the case. He cited a publicly available video of the 2023 Lithuanian Open Bodybuilding and Fitness Cup, in which an event host introduced Gaigalaitė as a competitor and named prosecutor Paulius Jasiukaitis as her coach.

Jasiukaitis, deputy chief prosecutor at the Panevėžys District Prosecutor’s Office, previously told ELTA that he had trained at the same gym as Gaigalaitė more than three years ago but had not been her coach. ELTA said it was unable to reach him for comment on the lawyer’s latest claims.

The murder investigation is being conducted by organised crime investigators at the Panevėžys County Police Headquarters under the direction of a prosecutor from the Panevėžys Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

Sadauskas’s body was found on April 21 on the grounds of a property in Panevėžys district. Investigators suspect it had been wrapped in a trampoline and buried there; a firearm was found during an inspection of the scene. Sadauskas’s father said his son had told him he had received an order to deliver a trampoline for a children’s party at a kindergarten. After Sadauskas disappeared, the account of the person who had ordered the trampoline was found to have been deleted.