Weekly Briefing, Vol. 58. No. 1 (LT) January 2023
Scandal of Sexual Abuse by a Member of Parliament
Summary
On January the 23rd the breaking news of the alleged sexual abuse of minors by parliamentarian Kristijonas Bartoševičius shocked society and rocked the political stage of Lithuania. Bartoševičius had resigned from the Seimas only hours before the official news broke out, and this has caused suspicions about a potential data leak, and an attempt to conceal the news from the society. There are fears that the scandal will have a heavy blow to reputation of the Seimas.
Introduction
The morning of the 23rd of January 2023 brought some shocking news – all major Lithuanian media channels started sharing a story that a member of Lithuanian Parliament, the Seimas, is suspected with the sexual abuse of minors. It was confirmed that the suspect is a member of the Conservative party Kristijonas Bartoševičius. Before embarking on a political career, Bartoševičius had been working as a middle school and high school teacher. As of end of January, the pre-trial investigation is ongoing, and it is already known that Bartoševičius is officially suspected of abusing at least 4 minors. [[1]]
The news of such a serious crime of sexual abuse of minors would be shocking regardless of who commits such a crime. However, because at the time of allegedly committing this crime Bartoševičius was a member of the Seimas, this briefing focuses on the political aspects of this story and what implications it may have on the stage of domestic politics. In particular, a possible reputational damage to the political system is assessed. Also, the briefing summarizes the suspicions that the data regarding the investigation was leaked to the suspect just hours before the news broke. Finally, a recently proposed debate regarding the necessity of legal immunity of members of parliament is introduced.
Impact to political system
The bombshell news regarding the allegations of a member of parliament committing such an awful crime like sexual abuse of minors is a severe a blow to the image of the Seimas. Unfortunately, Lithuanian parliament – the Seimas – has already been suffering from having a low trust of the society. According to the survey carried out in December 2022 by the market and opinion research centre Vilmorus, only 7.7 per cent of Lithuanians trust in the Seimas, whereas a whopping 58.1 per cent of population expressed a lack of trust in the Seimas. That makes the Seimas having the second lowest trust ratings among all major institutions in Lithuania. Political parties have the lowest ranking in the trust ratings, with only 3.7 per cent of people having trust in political parties and 60.7 per cent of Lithuanians expressing a lack of trust in them.
This scandal will certainly negatively affect people’s opinion of both the Seimas and political parties that comprise it. The Speaker of the Seimas, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, had been blaming the previous ruling coalition of being partly responsible for society’s low trust in the Seimas, and after becoming the speaker she declared that one of her main goals would be improving the opinion of general public towards the Seimas. [[2]]Unfortunately, with this breaking news, and suspicions about a possible data leak, it seems that achieving her goals of increasing trust in the Seimas would be even more challenging.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said that the shocking news and the pre-trial investigation is “a terrible blow to Lithuania’s political system, the image of the parliament and the Conservative party” [[3]]. In an interview to the public broadcaster LRT Gitanas Nausėda directly called the news as “peadophilia scandal” and that he would not have guessed that he would witness a such a scandal at the Seimas. [[4]]
Was information regarding the investigation leaked?
On the day of the breaking news Bartoševičius said “he was just as surprised by the news as everyone else and that he has not been questioned by anyone nor has any idea what the investigation is about.” [[5]] However, he suspiciously resigned from the duties of a member of the Seimas just hours before the application to cancel his legal immunity was submitted to the Seimas by the General Prosecutor. Furthermore, Bartoševičius decided to write and submit his surprise resignation while being on a business trip in Chile. Apparently, by swiftly resigning from the parliament, he may have tried to avoid the publicity and a potential reputational damage to the Conservative party.
This resignation just a couple of hours before General Prosecutor applied for the cancellation of his legal immunity has started suspicions that the information regarding the investigation was leaked to him. The Conservative party and Bartoševičius himself denies any knowledge of the investigation being carried out prior to the breaking news. However, it is increasingly likely that there will be further investigation whether the sensitive data regarding the General Prosecutor’s plan to apply for the cancellation of his legal immunity was leaked to Bartoševičius so that he could quickly resign from the Seimas.
Had Bartoševičius not resigned a few hours before General Prosecutor’s application to strip of his legal immunity, the procedure of the cancellation of the legal immunity would have been started, and the General Prosecutor would have had to reveal more facts and information regarding this investigation case to other members of the Seimas so that members of parliament could then start discussions of the situation and cast their vote whether or not to agree on the stripping of the legal immunity of Bartoševičius. A member of the opposition party Dainius Gaižauskas suspects that this legal immunity cancellation procedure is exactly what someone was trying to avoid. During such a procedure more details would have been made public because members of parliament are considered to be public persons. [[6]] Therefore, it is possible that some interested parties thought such a procedure would have incurred even more severe reputational damage to the Consevative party, and to the Seimas in general, and therefore leaked the data to Bartoševičius and asked him to swiftly resign from the Seimas before such a procedure could be carried out.
Indeed, there was a chance that this swift resignation would achieve the goals of secrecy. The Speaker of the Seimas, after receiving the initial application from the General Prosecutor to start a procedure of stripping of legal immunity of an unnamed member of parliament, later allegedly called the General Prosecutor inquiring, whether the application was in relation to Bartoševičius, and whether the procedure was still relevant because Bartoševičius had just submitted his resignation from the parliament, and the Central Electoral Commission had swiftly accepted it, in this way depriving him of the parliamentarian‘s legal immunity. [[7]] Had the General Prosecutor later not resubmitted the second application with the name of the suspect specified to the Seimas, it was possible the news regarding this alleged crime would have reached the society at a much later time.
Proposal to abolish legal immunity of members of parliament
Bartoševičius is not a member of The Conservative party but was elected to the Seimas while being part of the party’s listed candidates. “Leaders of the Conservative TS-LKD party have made cautious statements, expressing their bafflement and insisting that the investigation against Bartoševičius has nothing to do with the party.” [[8]] In order to control the narrative, the Conservatives issued an apology to the victims and swiftly started a discussion on a possible partial abolition of the legal immunity that all Lithuanian members of parliament have while they area elected into the Seimas.
There have been numerous cases when parliamentarians abuse their legal immunity in order to obstruct various investigations against them. The most notable case was financial fraud and corruption investigation against the Labour Party and its members which was started back in 2006 and lasted for many years, partly because of the abuse of legal immunity by its members. [[9]] Nevertheless, the legal immunity of members of parliament is written in the Constitution of Lithuania, and therefore is a complex issue to solve.
Conclusion
There are still many unanswered questions about these shocking allegations. It is not clear whether the information about the investigation was leaked to the suspect. It is likely that a separate investigation into a possible data leak will be conducted. However, what is certain is that this scandal will be damaging to the reputation of the Seimas. Many people expect that the elected parliamentarians should represent the best features of the society and lead by example. Clearly, this event has shattered this expectation.
[1] LRYTAS, K. Bartoševičiui pareikšti įtarimai dėl 4 nepilnamečių prievartavimo dar esant Seimo nariu, in: https://www.lrytas.lt/lietuvosdiena/aktualijos/2023/02/01/news/k-bartoseviciui-pareiksti-itarimai-25988581
[2] LRT, Čmilytė-Nielsen – apie dvigubą pavardę, triukšmą namie ir tai, kas pakels pasitikėjimą Seimu, in: https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/lietuvoje/2/1308444/cmilyte-nielsen-apie-dviguba-pavarde-triuksma-namie-ir-tai-kas-pakels-pasitikejima-seimu
[3] DELFI, Nausėda says sexual abuse scandal will damage Seimas’ image, in: https://www.delfi.lt/en/politics/nauseda-says-sexual-abuse-scandal-will-damage-seimas-image.d?id=92405339#cxrecs_s
[4] Ibid.
[5] LRT, Birthdays and scandals, in: https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1875743/lrt-english-newsletter-birthdays-and-scandals
[6] LRT, Dėl Bartoševičiaus apklausos – prokurorų tyla, Seime vis garsiau kalbama apie tyrimą dėl galimo informacijos nutekinimo, in: https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/lietuvoje/2/1877980/del-bartoseviciaus-apklausos-prokuroru-tyla-seime-vis-garsiau-kalbama-apie-tyrima-del-galimo-informacijos-nutekinimo
[7] LRYTAS, Aiškėja, kodėl prokurorai nusprendė atskleisti kortas – įtarimų dėl K. Bartoševičiaus kilo ir V. Čmilytei-Nielsen, in: https://www.lrytas.lt/lietuvosdiena/aktualijos/2023/01/30/news/aiskeja-kodel-prokurorai-nusprende-atskleisti-kortas-itarimu-del-k-bartoseviciaus-kilo-ir-v-cmilytei-nielsen-25957492
[8] LRT, Birthdays and scandals, in: https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1875743/lrt-english-newsletter-birthdays-and-scandals
[9] WIKPEDIA, Darbo partijos byla, in: https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darbo_partija#Darbo_partijos_byla