Daiva Ulbinaitė, adviser to Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaitė, told BNS that the president would not comment on the rally.
Organizers of the protest action have called for dismissal of Interior Minister Raimundas Palaitis from the post, calling for reinstatement of Vitalijus Gailius who was sacked from the position of director of the state agency in charge of investigation of financial crimes. Other slogans called for disbanding the State Security Department and curbing of "party clans."
"We demand immediate reinstatement of heads of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service – General Vitalijus Gailius and Colonel Vytautas Giržadas – who were fired for no clear reason," Darius Kuolys, director of the Civil Society Institute, cited an address of organizers of the protest rally.
"In my understanding, saying that the men who have been sending mafia to prison in Lithuania for years and are today providing consultations to foreign colleagues across the globe (…) did not perform very well is indecent. (…) If we cannot defend the men, we do not defend justice in Lithuania. We will put Lithuania back in the mafia era, if we fail to defend the people of high principles, who love their homeland and serve justice. This is the key demand," Kuolys said.
The address was intended to Grybauskaitė who said a few days ago that the top officers of the Financial Crimes Investigation Service had been sacked for “not quite good” performance in the investigation carried out by the State Security Department into information leak about Snoras bank. Copies of the address have also been handed to Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and Parliamentary Speaker Irena Degutienė. The address was greeted with acclamation at the Wednesday's protest.
In Kuolys' words, organizers also call for dismissal of Palaitis, as the state does not need ministers who “have nothing to do with anything.”
The president told journalists on Monday that the former FCIS chiefs were involved in politicizing, making a brief comment on the role of the interior minister in the story: "Minister Palaitis has nothing to do with this."
Organizers of the protest rally also spoke about the general situation in Lithuania's law-enforcement and justice system.
"Privatization of strategic economy sectors and companies, stronger positions of monopolies, unfinished national stadiums, organization of national festivals in terms of grand thefts, creation of pseudo images and scores of other "projects" would be simply impossible without acknowledgment and approval of top-ranking officials and politicians. The criminals disguising as politicians deserve the same punishment as ordinary citizens of Lithuania who commit an offense. The law-enforcement should investigate crimes committed by politicians just as well," actor Andrius Nakas said on behalf of ekspertai.eu portal.
In his words, the society would support "extremely radical and vital" steps taken by the president, which would "lead to arrests, not pre-trial investigations."
The police said in a press release issued after the event that the protest rally proceeded in a peaceful and friendly manner, without major incidents.
Police officers who guarded the event said it was attended by between 800 and 1,000 participants.
