The fact that the Lithuanian businessman was arrested in the early hour of Wednesday has also been confirmed by Lithuanian Ambassador to Georgia Jonas Paslauskas.
"Tomorrow (on Thursday – BNS) I am meeting with the lawyers. I cannot explain anything more yet, there are all sorts of speculations. I can only confirm that Vaitkevičius has been detained," Paslauskas told BNS on Wednesday night.
Vaitkevičius used to be a co-owner of Ioli Supermarket, the largest retailer in Georgia. According to his wife, he recently sold his share and planned to fly to Lithuania on Wednesday.
The businessman was kept and interrogated for six hours without his lawyers being present, his wife said.
"He was not officially charged with anything. He simply had to come forward with the way he was related to the former government," Vaitkevičienė said. "He was asked about how he was related to the former government. The lawyers talked to the prosecutors, and they said that he is related to the former government, that he would pay bribes, that he was related to the government and Darius Jurgelevičius who, as far as I know, is a former adviser to (former Prime Minister) Vano Merabishvili," she added.
In Vaitkevičienė's words, her husband is board chairman of the Baltic Chamber of Commerce and has contact with all governments.
Jurgelevičius, a former deputy director of Lithuania's State Security Department, left for Georgia soon after the so-called SSD scandal and advised Georgia's former minister of interior affairs and later Prime Minister Merabishvili who owns one of Georgia's TV channels.
Merabishvili, leader of the opposition United National Movement, is currently under arrest, charged with corruption, embezzlement of state funds and exceeding his officials powers.
Vaitkevičius has lived in Georgia with his family and done business since 2009.
