Gapšys challenges judge over refusal to grant early release

Former Lithuanian MP Vytautas Gapšys, who is seeking early release from prison, has complained to the Judicial Ethics and Discipline Commission over a judge’s unfavourable decision, LRT reported, citing the news agency ELTA.

“The Judicial Ethics and Discipline Commission has received V. Gapšys’s complaint,” Tomas Kavaliauskas, head of the Communications Division of the National Courts Administration, told ELTA.

The commission is now following the procedure set out in its regulations. Its chair may prepare material for consideration at a commission meeting, refer the matter to a commission member or inform the complainant that the submission will not be examined.

The commission may also decide whether the complaint is admissible and ask the judge named in the complaint to provide an explanation. The chair of a higher-level court may also be tasked with investigating the matter and submitting the findings.

The contents of the complaint are not currently public because this stage of the procedure is closed. The information would become public if the commission decided to examine the submission at a meeting, the National Courts Administration said.

Three unsuccessful attempts at early release

In June, the Kaunas District Court in Kaišiadorys for the third time refused to grant early release to Gapšys, who is serving a prison sentence for corruption. He appealed to the Kaunas Regional Court.

A three-judge panel at the regional court upheld his complaint because of procedural violations by the lower court. It annulled the lower court’s ruling and ordered the issue of Gapšys’s conditional release to be reconsidered by the district court.

The regional court said Gapšys had been informed about the prosecutor’s complaint only one day before the hearing, which was held in written proceedings, and had not been given the opportunity to submit a response.

The Conditional Release Commission had recently supported Gapšys’s early release. It found that he was serving an actual prison sentence for the first time and that his risk of reoffending was low.

The commission also noted that Gapšys had been working since 2024 as an assistant worker and advising on business management and public relations. He had also been providing free legal services at a crisis support centre and had received a commendation for the volunteer work.

“There is no information that the convicted person is linked to a criminal subculture or supports criminal behaviour,” the commission’s documents said.

The commission concluded that Gapšys’s dynamic criminogenic factors were manageable and decided to grant conditional release. However, prosecutors at the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office appealed the decision, disputing the commission’s assessment of his risk of reoffending.

On June 11, the Kaunas District Court refused to approve the commission’s decision in Gapšys’s favour. In his appeal to the Kaunas Regional Court, Gapšys asked for the conditional release issue to be sent back to the district court for reconsideration. Alternatively, he asked to be allowed to attend the hearing with his defence lawyer.

Sentence runs until February 2028

Gapšys is serving his sentence at an open-type facility in Kaunas and returns to his family in Vilnius at weekends. If he is not granted conditional release, he will remain imprisoned until February 24, 2028.

The Supreme Court of Lithuania sentenced him to four years and three months in prison.