Supreme Court to hear Bartoševičius appeal over child sex crimes

Lithuania’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of former lawmaker Kristijonas Bartoševičius, who was convicted of sexual offences against children, LRT reported on Wednesday, citing the court’s press representative Tautvilė Merkevičiūtė.

The court’s selection panel of judges decided to accept Bartoševičius’ appeal on points of law. The case will be heard through oral proceedings.

His lawyer is asking the court to overturn the judgments issued against him and either terminate the case or return it for a new hearing at the first-instance or appellate court.

Bartoševičius was taken to Kaunas Prison in May. The Court of Appeal had previously rejected his appeal, ruling that the first-instance court had correctly found him guilty of all the charges.

The Panevėžys Regional Court sentenced the former politician to seven years in prison, a sentence that remained unchanged. The appellate ruling also barred him, for five years after completing his sentence, from working in a job or engaging in activities that could involve children or minors.

Bartoševičius was convicted of all 10 offences brought against him, including the sexual abuse of a young child, the sexual abuse of a minor, the molestation of a person under 16, and causing non-serious health impairment to victims.

The pretrial investigation was completed in July 2023, and the case concerning possible sexual offences against children was sent to court. Bartoševičius announced his resignation from parliament on January 23, 2023, citing personal reasons. The prosecutor’s office later announced that an investigation into possible sexual offences against minors had been opened against him.

News portal Delfi reported that the possible sexual offences were committed against students of the Ąžuoliukas choir. Publicly available information says Bartoševičius was director of the Ąžuoliukas boys’ and youth choir from 2012 to 2020 and a teacher at Kaunas Veršvai Gymnasium in 2018 and 2019.