Inspection finds former border guard chief breached reporting rules

An internal inspection found that former State Border Guard Service chief Rustamas Liubajevas failed to follow procedures for informing political leaders about serious incidents at the border, Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas said on Wednesday, according to LRT.

Katelynas said the inspection was launched in early August after he received information about an incident only eight or nine days later, following the publication of details by a journalist. He said the information initially provided to him was also inaccurate.

“It has been established that the general did not comply with the procedures approved by the interior minister on serious incidents at the border and on when and whom the political leadership should be informed about an incident,” Katelynas told reporters at the Government.

The Government dismissed Liubajevas as head of the State Border Guard Service on Wednesday after he decided to step down while law enforcement was investigating an incident at the border.

A temporary head will be appointed from among the service’s deputy chiefs, Katelynas said. He added that he was still deciding which deputy would take the position, while a permanent successor would be sought later.

The minister also said he knew of earlier incidents about which his predecessors had not been informed. He said the problem was not a lack of procedures but failure to follow them.

Minister plans clearer rules on use of firearms

Katelynas said the rules governing the use of firearms by the State Border Guard Service should be changed because officers sometimes hesitate to use their weapons.

He said the aim was not to liberalise the use of firearms, but to define more clearly when and under what circumstances they could be used. The minister said officers should be able to defend their own lives, those of colleagues and other people, as well as protect the state border with firearms if necessary.

Katelynas said proposals were still being prepared and that their details would be presented once the drafting process was complete.

Discussion about Liubajevas’s future began after media reports about an incident in late July on the grounds of the Kapčiamiestis border post.