Sadauskienė’s new lawyer seeks transfer of murder investigation

A second defence lawyer for Justina Sadauskienė, suspected of murdering paramedic Mantas Sadauskas, has asked Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office to transfer the investigation from Panevėžys to another prosecutor’s office, LRT reported, citing ELTA. No response has yet been received.

Lawyer Vytautas Sirvydis said he believes the case should not be investigated in Panevėžys, citing concerns that he said were also raised by the victim’s relatives. Sadauskienė is also represented by lawyer Vaidotas Sviderskis. Sirvydis said having two lawyers on a case was a matter of the client’s choice.

Sirvydis pointed to Sadauskienė’s past connection to a Panevėžys deputy chief prosecutor, Paulius Jasiukaitis. He said she had trained at a gym with Jasiukaitis, who competes in bodybuilding, and argued that the General Prosecutor’s Office should consider taking over the investigation or assigning it elsewhere.

Jasiukaitis told ELTA that he and Sadauskienė worked out at the same Panevėžys gym more than three years ago and that he was not her trainer. He said they trained together for about six months before the gym’s members asked that she no longer be allowed to attend.

The investigation is being conducted by organised crime officers from the Panevėžys County Chief Police Headquarters and supervised by a prosecutor from the organised crime and corruption division of the Panevėžys Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

Prosecutors have recently added an allegation that Sadauskienė organised arson attacks on her former husband’s cars almost two years ago. The investigation into the suspected arson has been joined with the murder case. Sadauskas’s relatives have criticised the authorities’ handling of the fires, saying his life might have been saved if they had been solved.

A Panevėžys Regional Court hearing was held on Wednesday on prosecutors’ requests to extend the detention of Sadauskienė and her partner, Vilius Solkanas. The court extended Solkanas’s detention by three months, citing concerns that he could flee, evade justice or commit another offence.