Court rejects former judge Misiūnas’ lawsuit against president

Vilnius Regional Court on Friday rejected former judge Eimutis Misiūnas’ lawsuit against President Gitanas Nausėda, LRT reported, citing information provided to ELTA by the court.

The decision can be appealed to the Court of Appeal of Lithuania within 30 days.

Misiūnas had asked the court to rule that the president had unjustifiably refused to appoint him as a judge, order Nausėda to do so and award compensation for material and non-material damages.

On October 7, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights found a violation of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the case of Misiūnas v. Lithuania. It ordered Lithuania to pay Misiūnas 10,000 euros in compensation for non-material damage.

The European court found that after national courts refused to accept Misiūnas’ lawsuit, he had been denied the right to an effective review of the president’s discretionary decision. Misiūnas then asked for the civil proceedings to be reopened. The Supreme Court of Lithuania said the violation could be remedied only by reopening the case and reconsidering whether his lawsuit should be accepted.

Misiūnas was appointed a judge at Vilnius City District Court in 2015, but agreed to become interior minister in Saulius Skvernelis’ government in December 2016. He later served as deputy defence minister from 2019 to 2020.

In 2020, Misiūnas ran for parliament with the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union but was not elected. That same year, he asked the National Courts Administration to appoint him again as a judge at Vilnius City District Court. Nausėda rejected the request.

The Presidential Office said at the time that a person who had ended a judicial career to take part in political activity and wanted to return to judicial office should observe a certain period of political cooling off. Misiūnas appealed the decision to several courts, but they refused to accept his complaints.

Several years later, the president sought advice from the Council of Judges on Misiūnas’ return to judicial office, but he was not appointed again. Misiūnas subsequently brought the matter before the European Court of Human Rights.