"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acquainted itself with the administrative court's arguments and decided to lodge an appeal as it considers the arguments of the court's ruling insufficient and believes that many important circumstance were not taken into account, including the fact that the exception regarding the application of sanctions cannot be applied automatically," Daiva Rimašauskaitė, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told BNS.
The diplomat said since the judicial process would continue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would refrain from further comment on the issue.
Earlier in the day, Vilnius Regional Administrative Court told the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Financial Crime Investigation Service to reconsider Peftiyev's request.
"The decisions made by the Foreign Ministry are not based on factual circumstances, lack reasoning and do not specify the appeals procedure, consequently, cannot be found legitimate and grounded," the court said in a press release.
Peftiyev, the businessman considered an ally of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, and three of his companies applied for an exception and a possibility to pay Lithuanian lawyers for the plea to the EU court over sanctions. The money transferred to the law firm's account were frozen.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and FCIS refused to apply the exception based on a conclusion that the "cash intended for paying for legal services of the law office have been acquired in an unauthorized manner," the court said.
The court stated that the ministry should have only examined the terms and conditions specified for the exception in the EU regulation – whether the applicants applied to the EU court, whether they are represented by a Lithuanian law firm, whether the representatives of the law firm have been allowed to represent the applicants at the EU court and whether the money was intended for paying for the services.
An appeal against the Vilnius court ruling can be filed within 14 days of announcement to the Supreme Administrative Court.
The Lithuanian law firm LAWIN was last October announced a representative of Peftiyev who had decided to challenge the European Unions sanctions.
In a comment sent to BNS, LAWIN Partner Vilija Vaitkutė Pavan said the LAWIN law firm represented Belarusian citizen Vladimir Peftiyev and the country's three companies ZAO Beltechexport, ZAO Sport-Pari, and PUE BT Telecommunications in the General Court of the European Union.
According to the lawyer, Peftiyev challenged the June decision and regulation by the EU Council on the application of sanctions against certain Belarusian individuals and corporate entities regarding the restriction of the freedom of movement in the EU and freezing of assets.
"LAWIN does not comment on the firm's relations with clients, but there is no doubt that every person has the right to defense, and only court can rule on a person's guilt and on the legitimacy and legality of applied sanctions after looking into all important circumstances," the firm said in the comment.
Peftiyev had been named one of Lukashenko's key advisers and the regime's supporter. The EU imposed sanctions against Lukashenko and his associates in response to the Belarusian government's repressions against the opposition and violations of human rights.
It was announced then that Beltechexport was engaged in arms export, Beltelcom – in telecommunications, and Sport-Pari – in betting, advertisement business.
