Court halts case over prison service chief’s reprimand

The Regional Administrative Court on Tuesday suspended proceedings over a reprimand given to Lithuanian Prison Service director Mindaugas Kairys, pending a final decision in a pre-trial investigation into possible unlawful influence on him, LRT reported.

Kairys is seeking to overturn a government decision imposing a severe reprimand on July 16, 2025. He argues that then-Justice Minister Rimantas Mockus persecuted him after he refused to carry out unlawful instructions.

The court said the investigation could establish facts essential to the administrative case, but those facts could not be determined in administrative proceedings. It cited an October 13 ruling by a pre-trial judge at Vilnius City District Court that overturned a prosecutor’s decision to close the investigation. The judge said not all relevant information had been examined and assessed, and that doubts and contradictions about possible signs of criminal offences remained.

The administrative case will resume once a final decision in the investigation takes effect. The ruling can be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania within seven days of its publication.

The government issued Kairys a reprimand on July 9, 2025, followed by the severe reprimand a week later. Mockus had proposed both penalties based on the findings of internal investigations, which identified alleged breaches involving the use of service funds and official vehicles. He later proposed dismissing Kairys, but the prison service chief had been granted whistleblower status, which prevents dismissal.

The Special Investigation Service opened a pre-trial investigation into possible unlawful influence on Kairys. It was closed in May this year, but the court ordered it to continue. Delfi reported unofficially that the investigation concerned Mockus’s actions and that Kairys may have recorded a conversation with the minister and given it to law enforcement.

Kairys was appointed deputy director of the Lithuanian Prison Service in March 2023 and became its director in May 2024.