Appeal court acquits Šiauliai councillor in expenses case

LRT reports that Lithuania’s Court of Appeal has acquitted Šiauliai City Council member Gintautas Lukošaitis of all charges in a case over allegedly improper expense reimbursements. The court granted the 54-year-old councillor’s appeal on Thursday, overturning a conviction for abuse of office, embezzlement and document forgery.

In January, the Šiauliai Regional Court found that Lukošaitis had falsified 31 advance expense reports between 2019 and 2023, claiming fuel costs unrelated to his council work and embezzling 1,644 euros. He denied the charges and appealed.

Prosecutors must prove guilt

The Court of Appeal said the first-instance court had wrongly assessed the evidence. Buying different types of fuel, or buying fuel twice in one day or on consecutive days using his or his wife’s payment cards, did not by itself prove that the fuel was for personal use. Nor did buying fuel in a municipality other than the one where he served as a councillor, the court said.

The case established that Lukošaitis had several cars requiring different types of fuel, also used a car rented by his wife and carried out his council duties actively. The appellate court said he could therefore have incurred fuel expenses for his work that the lower court had wrongly deemed unlawful.

The court stressed that prosecutors must prove a person’s guilt and that any doubt must be resolved in the defendant’s favour. It accepted that Lukošaitis had wrongly received reimbursement for 49.50 euros spent on fuel for personal use, but said this did not meet the threshold for criminal liability and did not change the acquittal.

The acquittal took effect on the day it was issued and may be challenged before the Supreme Court within three months. Lukošaitis has also lost a civil case and must repay 11,067 euros to the public budget for expenses that were unjustifiably reimbursed.

Defence raised possible bias

Lukošaitis asked to be fully acquitted and sought reimbursement from the state for his legal costs, saying he had paid his lawyer, Dominykas Vanhara, 6,000 euros. His lawyer also sought an acquittal and alleged that the judge who heard the case at first instance may have been biased.

The lawyer cited a pollution case won by a municipal company against a business headed by the father of the judge’s former spouse. During the proceedings, Lukošaitis posted accusations against law enforcement on social media and tried to give a bouquet of flowers to the judge who delivered the original conviction.