Acquitted former Panevėžys mayor seeks nearly 166,000 euros from state

Former Panevėžys mayor Rytis Mykolas Račkauskas, now the city’s deputy mayor, is seeking nearly 166,000 euros in damages from the state after his acquittal in an abuse-of-office case, LRT reports. The civil claim is being heard by Vilnius City District Court.

Račkauskas is seeking 90,800 euros in financial damages, including 38,600 euros for legal fees and lost income. He says he lost more than 52,200 euros after being suspended from his post. He is also seeking 75,000 euros for non-financial damages. The defendants are the Ministry of Justice, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Special Investigation Service.

Račkauskas declined to comment on the claim to news agency ELTA.

In November 2025, the Supreme Court of Lithuania overturned the convictions of Račkauskas and his former adviser, Gintarė Maskoliūnienė, and terminated the case, finding no signs of a crime in their actions. Lower courts had found them guilty of abuse of office. The Court of Appeal had also fined Račkauskas 15,000 euros and barred him from working in public service for three years. Maskoliūnienė received a 12,500-euro fine and the same ban.

The pair had been convicted over two public procurement contracts organised by the Panevėžys municipal administration in 2017 and 2018 for the “Panevėžys is renewing” publicity project. Prosecutors said they had helped an advertising agency win the contracts in exchange for personal benefit to the mayor. They were also convicted over an agreement with an agency consultant to conduct a survey of residents and prepare a written programme focused on the mayor’s political career ahead of the 2019 municipal elections. The municipality paid for the services, causing 4,672 euros in financial damage, according to the earlier rulings.

The Supreme Court agreed that the actions did not meet public procurement transparency principles and breached technical requirements, but said lower courts had not properly assessed evidence that challenged a key part of the financial-damage allegation. The survey was conducted under an existing contract between the municipality and the agency, its price was not artificially inflated, and its results were presented to the mayor, his adviser and other staff before being used in the publicity project. The court also rejected claims that the survey benefited only Račkauskas or that its results were concealed, and found that the municipality had not paid for the written programme focused on his political career. It said there was no basis to find that significant non-financial damage had been caused.