A prosecutor filed the plea shortly after the Labor Party opened merger talks with the Order and Justice party.
"Should the parties merge, the Labor Party would cease to exist in this criminal case as a legal entity, it would be excluded from the register. Although the code envisages a successor of rights and duties, it does not stipulate it standing trial for criminal operations," Prosecutor Saulius Verseckas told the court on Wednesday.
Lawyers of the defendants in the bookkeeping fraud trial said the prosecutor's plea contained a “Constitutional clash.”
The court adjourned its meeting until Friday.
"Prosecutors should not interfere in politics"
Valentinas Mazuronis, vice-chairman of the Order and Justice Party, comments that a prosecutor should not influence political processes.
"I view this as an attempt of prosecutor Saulius Verseckas to interfere where he shouldn't – into political processes. Until there is no court verdict, everyone is subject to presumption of innocence," Mazuronis told BNS on Wednesday.
In his words, the prosecutor's request goes beyond interference, it is an attempt to influence political processes, i.e., merger of two political parties.
The politician emphasized that the law-enforcement and politics should be separate.
The Labor Party stands trial for failing to include more than 24 million litas (EUR 6.9m) in income and 23 litas in spending in its books in the 2004-2006 period.
The Labor Party's leader MP Viktor Uspaskich, Parliamentary Vice-Speaker Vytautas Gapšys and MP Vitalija Vonžutaitė are charged with organizing the bookkeeping fraud. In addition to the three parliamentarians, charges have been brought against the Labor Party as a legal entity and its former financial officer Marina Liutkevičienė.
The party's representatives have been flatly rejecting the accusations, saying the case is political. The case reached court back in 2008.
Last weekend, councils of the Labor Party and the Order and Justice party agreed to a merger and decided to open negotiations in this respect.
"Back to 1926"
Lawyer Vytautas Sviderskis, who is representing the Labor Party's leader Viktor Uspaskich in the case, says that the prosecutor's office is engaging in politicizing in order to hinder the Labor Party's merger with the Order and Justice party.
"Lithuania is going back to the year 1926," the lawyer told journalists after a court hearing on Wednesday, referring to a coup held in Lithuania in the 1920s which initiated authoritarian rule by President Antanas Smetona.
Even though prosecutors say the move is intended to prevent the party from being disolved before it could be handed a ruling,
Sviderskis believes that prosecutors are entering the political arena. He reminded hat the prosecutors brought graver charges against the party before the second round of general elections last October.
Sviderskis also noted that the plea was filed at a time when his defendant is absent from court hearings and is treated at a Cardiology Unit of Kaunas Clinic.
"I think we should consider whether the plea is in line with the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, especially in the context of these days," said the lawyer.
The Labor Party's vice-chairman Vytautas Gapšys said the plea was "direct interference with operations of political parties."
"The prosecutor's plea is hasty, as restructuring terms and conditions have not yet been approved. Restructuring conditions is a document that has to be made available to the public. He rushed and unlawfully interfered with a political process. Legal measures should be based on logic here. One of the measures – an appeal to the Constitutional Court," Gapšys told reporters.
The Vilnius court adjourned its hearings in the Labor Party's case until March 12. Should one of the defendants, the Labor Party's leader Viktor Uspaskich, recover until then, the hearings will continue. On Wednesday, the court included a medical statement about Uspaskich being treated in Kaunas Clinic. Doctors did not specify the duration of his treatment.
