„That feeling, which has grown particularly strong in recent days as I watch the buck being passed... The minister of justice spoke out, as did others, and there was even a shifting of responsibility between the Social Democrats (...) and the Prosecutor General’s Office, as if they were trying to hide behind the Prosecutor General’s refusal. Later, the president commented on this matter, saying that the prosecutor’s office’s ban shouldn’t be used as an excuse, because that isn’t a valid reason,“ she told Žinių Radijas on Friday.
„It’s certainly a very confusing situation, but it’s clear that someone—apparently a politician—decided that this story should be swept under the rug. (...) The worst part of this reaction is that the people who were affected, whose data was stolen, have (...) been put at risk—that’s obvious. (...) And here, for nearly two months, someone knew about this but didn’t inform anyone. Although, by the way, the law unequivocally requires notification,“ added the Liberal leader.
The Prosecutor General’s Office announced last Friday that a pre-trial investigation had been launched into the possible leak of RC real estate registry data. It later stated that the investigation was launched on the same day a report of the incident was received—April 15.
Minister of Economy and Innovation Edvinas Grikšas explained that his ministry learned of the first data leaks on April 3, but the scale of the incident was unknown at the time. According to him, the institution was informed of the leak of several hundred thousand registry entries only on April 21.
Earlier, the prime minister’s advisor, Ignas Dobrovolskas, stated that Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė also learned of the situation in early April.
According to Čmilytė-Nielsen, there has been an inexplicable delay in informing the affected residents.
„I see confusion, indecision, but above all, a completely incomprehensible delay and avoidance of informing the victims,“ said Čmilytė-Nielsen.
As reported by ELTA, more than 600,000 registry entries may have been leaked since January, causing damages of at least EUR 111,000.
The fact that the data leak from the company’s registries was detected in early April and that the authorities, including the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, were informed of this was stated on Monday by Adrijus Jusas, the former Head of RC who has since stepped down from his post.
Both Prime Minister Ruginienė and Minister of Economy and Innovation Grikšas faced criticism for informing the public about the incident too late.
Ruginienė said this week that the public could not be informed about this because the investigation had been initiated and was being supervised by the Prosecutor General’s Office, which stated that disclosing certain information could result in criminal liability.
However, President Gitanas Nausėda criticised the prime minister’s position and said that the public should have been informed because, according to him, there was no prohibition by the Prosecutor General’s Office against publishing this information.
The Prosecutor’s Office told ELTA that, at an early stage of the investigation, publicising the information could have complicated procedural actions or even made it impossible to collect the data necessary to establish the facts.
On Thursday, the Social Democratic Party posted a statement by party Chairman Mindaugas Sinkevičius on its Facebook page, in which he criticised the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to the politician, it, not the prime minister, should have informed the public about the data leak. However, later on Thursday, the party deleted this post.
Following this post by the Social Democrats, the Prosecutor General’s Office issued a statement asserting that it was not the Prosecutor General’s Office but the RC itself that was obligated to report the incident.