On Thursday, questions as to why suspicions against Giržadas were dropped, what is the progress of the pre-trial investigation in the case were discussed at a meeting of the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defense.
After providing his explanations to the committee, Valys told journalists that the pre-trial investigation against Giržadas was discontinued "after failure to collect enough evidence that he committed a criminal act." He also claimed that "there were circumstances that allowed us to believe there was a basis for questioning him (Giržadas – BNS) as a suspect."
The prosecutor general also said the pre-trial investigation into leaking of information continues without any new suspects after suspicions against Giržadas were dropped.
"The pre-trial investigation continues, and the fact that a decision was made with regard to one person does not mean that the crime will not be solved," Valys said. When asked if there were more suspects in the case, he said "no."
In late May, the Prosecutor General's Office dropped suspicions of document forgery and jobbery against Giržadas after failure to collect enough evidence to prove that he committed criminal acts.
Meanwhile MP Vitalijus Gailius, former head of the FCIS, told the committee that individuals who leaked information about actions planned by law enforcement institutions against Snoras would have been identified within several weeks, if Giržadas had been allowed to continue working.
"I have said numerous times that everything started when the State Security Department was provided with information, produced based on factual information and provisions of the Law on Operation Activities, on real circumstances of the information leak, but the SSD hid that information and instead produced a 1937-style, under the blanket so-called report based on which illegitimate actions were subsequently made. If they had allowed Mr. Giržadas to work, I believe we would have had the answer in two week," Gailius told journalists.
Gailius also informed committee members that he had turned to prosecutors over alleged criminal actions of SSD officers.
The suspicions against Giržadas were brought almost a year ago, in the spring of 2012.
In November 2011, just before Snoras nationalization, the Lietuvos Rytas daily, citing anonymous sources, reported that "the Prosecutor General's Office has already signed search warrant at one of the banks and homes of their executives." Several days later, Snoras was closed down.
The then FCIS head Vitalijus Gailius and Giržadas were later subjected to lie detector test over the leaking of information about planned actions in the Snoras case. Giržadas failed the test. After Gailius refused to sack his deputy Giržadas, the then Minister of the Interior, Raimundas Palaitis, withdrew permits for both of them to access classified information and they were subsequently fired.
Later on, Gailius and Giržadas proved at Vilnius Regional Administrative Court that they were wrongly dismissed.
Gailius is currently a member of the Seimas, and Giržadas joined a well-known law firm.
