Lithuanian parliament launches impeachment against MP convicted for corruption
The Lithuanian parliament on Tuesday launched impeachment proceedings against Vytautas Gapšys, a Labour Party MP who is currently serving time for a political corruption conviction.
The motion was passed with 95 votes in favour, one against and three abstentions.
The parliament set December 21 as the date for the impeachment vote.
Since Gapšys’ conviction is final, his impeachment would proceed through a simplified procedure, without referral to the Constitutional Court.
At least 85 votes in the 141-member parliament are needed to strip an MP of their mandate.
Last month, Gapšys was sentenced to four years and six months in a Kaunas prison
Last month, Gapšys was sentenced to four years and six months of imprisonment by the Lithuanian Court of Appeals for corruption offences and is currently serving time in a Kaunas prison.
The court found that Raimondas Kurlianskis, a former vice-president of the business group MG Baltic, had asked Gapšys to use his position in the parliament and his party to influence other public officials.
In exchange, Gapšys received bribes disguised as a 12,100-euro discount for the Labour Party’s political advertising and a 15,000-euro donation to Meno ir Sporto Projektai (Art and Sport Projects), a limited liability public legal entity, according to the court’s press release.
The MP filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court of Lithuania, requesting to suspend the execution of his sentence, but the court did not grant his request.
Jurgis Razma, deputy speaker of the Seimas, has said that Gapšys, who is in his third term as an MP, stopped receiving his salary and his allowance for parliamentary expenses when he started serving his prison sentence.