„Not me, definitely not in this case. The information is quite recent. It doesn't necessarily have to be the police. There are other institutions, such as the Special Investigation Service (STT) or others, that could investigate this,“ Kondratovičius told LRT television on Wednesday.
The minister also said he had no evidence to confirm Žemaitaitis' possible links to the criminal world.
„The minister has no such information and certainly does not interfere in the work of law enforcement. We have depoliticised all these processes as much as possible. Of course, it is the prerogative of the person himself to refute certain rumours, if there are any, and he should speak about it himself,“ he emphasised.
For his part, Deputy Police Commissioner Marius Draudvila hinted that sometimes it is necessary to maintain informational silence.
„All the time, if there is one piece of information or another, it is checked and evaluated. And decisions on further action are made while acting. This is usually how the process works,“ Draudvila told LRT television.
„As the minister said, it is not necessarily the police who do this,“ he said.
As reported, last week communications specialist Karolis Žukauskas shared a photo on Facebook showing Žemaitaitis together with Aurelijus Perminas, also known as Šūdmaišis. Perminas was the first of the Agurkiniai leaders to testify against the group's leader, Saulius Velečka, thus helping the authorities to expose the group.
Perminas was last convicted in December 2008 for unlawful deprivation of liberty, robbery, and document forgery.
It later emerged that other party members also had links to Šūdmaišis – Perminas is known to Robertas Puchovičius, vice-chairman of Nemuno Aušra.
Responding to the possible connections between party members, President Gitanas Nausėda said on Tuesday that this was a serious problem. He also stressed that this fact could cast a criminal shadow over the entire coalition if all the questions raised were not answered.