Seimo vicepirmininkė Daiva Žebelienė submits second appeal to Supreme Court

Daiva Žebelienė, a member of the Seimas and its deputy speaker, has filed a second cassation appeal with the Supreme Court of Lithuania (LAT), LRT reports.

Žebelienė, who was previously found to have unjustly enriched herself in a civil case and ordered to return €6,900 to Šilutė District Municipality, is now asking the court to refer the matter to the Constitutional Court. Her appeal requests an examination of whether provisions in the Law on Local Self-Government and a regulation of Šilutė District Municipality Council on reimbursement procedures comply with Article 5 of the Constitution and the principle of a constitutional state under the rule of law.

She also seeks the annulment of the rulings by the first and appellate instance courts and demands a new decision—either the dismissal of the prosecutor’s claim or the return of the case to the appellate court for reconsideration. The admissibility of this second appeal has not yet been determined, according to Tautvilė Merkevičiūtė, a representative of the Supreme Court’s communications service.

Žebelienė had previously submitted a cassation appeal, arguing that the Law on Local Self-Government and the municipality’s regulations were unclear, ambiguous, and lacked detailed explanations on which documents were suitable for justifying expenses. She claimed that her unjust enrichment stemmed from contradictions in the regulations or their incorrect interpretation, and that there was no legal basis for the prosecutor to defend public interest by demanding the return of funds for fuel used while she attended events as a council member.

The Supreme Court’s Selection Board decided in May that the previous appeal did not raise legal issues that met the grounds for case review as specified by law.

Courts have ruled that Žebelienė, while serving as a council member in Šilutė District Municipality, unjustly enriched herself by purchasing nearly 2 tonnes of fuel during the quarantine period when movement was restricted. The first-instance judge, Loreta Bajorinienė of Tauragė District Court, noted that during the quarantine, 1,814 litres of fuel were purchased, of which nearly 63 litres were paid for with a payment card belonging to the council member. The judge also found that the receipts submitted indicated a larger quantity of fuel than the cars used by Žebelienė could hold.

Žebelienė’s lawyer had previously disputed these findings. The civil case was examined in multiple court instances.

The court also ruled that the list of events, trips, and meetings provided by Žebelienė, in which she participated as a council member, did not prove that she had driven nearly 72,000 kilometres while performing her duties. Žebelienė argued in court that the municipality could have paid for her fuel when she attended events related to President Gitanas Nausėda’s election campaign and meetings with her party leader, Remigijus Žemaitaitis, to address issues raised by her voters.

However, the court determined that such activities, including campaigning for presidential elections and participating in debates for the European Parliament elections, were not directly related to the work of a council member. The court also noted that Žebelienė held paid jobs in companies while serving as a council member and raised doubts about the number of events she claimed to have attended. For example, in September 2020, she reported participating in 36 events.