„Upon receiving such a court ruling, the leadership of the Seimas – the speaker or a deputy speaker – must inform the Seimas and initiate impeachment proceedings.
It is all far simpler than the Seimas itself having to determine, in one case or another, whether a breach has occurred or not. It is now clearly stated in the Seimas Statute that if a court has found that a criminal offence has been committed and the verdict has been upheld on appeal, impeachment proceedings must be initiated,“ Fiodorovas told ELTA on Wednesday.
Under the Seimas Statute, if a Member of Parliament is found guilty in a criminal case, their mandate is revoked.
Susiję straipsniai
In 2024, the Constitutional Court (KT) ruled that Žemaitaitis had breached his oath as a Member of the Seimas and grossly violated the Constitution through his anti-Semitic statements. The politician then voluntarily relinquished his parliamentary seat.
Fiodorovas does not rule out the possibility that, on this occasion too, the MP will decide to relinquish the seat of his own accord.
„He is an expert in this matter, having already done so once before, and I would not rule out the possibility that he might take this option again, because from what we can at least see in the public sphere, it does not appear that he has given up his political ambitions for the future. If the Seimas were to decide to revoke his mandate, the door would be closed to many of his political ambitions. But I would not rule out the possibility that, being an expert in this matter, he might act in the same way again,“ said the MP.
Žemaitaitis himself told ELTA that he would not be stepping down from the Seimas. Furthermore, he described the court’s ruling as political and said he would appeal it to the Supreme Court of Lithuania (LAT).
Žemaitaitis remains convicted; court increases fine
As reported by ELTA, the Lithuanian Court of Appeal ruled that Žemaitaitis had been justifiably convicted in the criminal case concerning anti-Semitic statements.
The Court of Appeal increased the fine previously imposed on Žemaitaitis from 5,000 to 10,000 euros.
Žemaitaitis, the leader of the Nemuno Aušra movement, who was convicted of inciting hatred and trivialising the Holocaust, sought acquittal through appeals lodged together with his lawyer. The Court of Appeal dismissed these appeals.
This court ruling came into force immediately; it may be appealed to the Supreme Court of Lithuania under cassation proceedings.
Žemaitaitis did not appear in court to hear the decision of the panel of judges who had heard the case.
ELTA reports that last December, the Vilnius Regional Court found Žemaitaitis guilty of inciting hatred and trivialising the Holocaust, and fined him 5,000 euros. The court of first instance ruled that, as a politician, Žemaitaitis had, in May and June 2023, used language that was degrading to human dignity and incited hatred against a group of people on the grounds of their Jewish ethnicity. The case involved the investigation and assessment of seven posts published by the politician on social media, as well as a speech he delivered publicly in parliament.
It was established that the politician’s public statements on the social media platform Facebook, as well as his speech delivered at a session of the Seimas, exceeded the limits of freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution and constituted criminal offences as defined in the Criminal Code.
The court noted that, in the posts, the politician had used language that was degrading, disparaging to human dignity and inciting hostility on ethnic grounds. It was established that a significant proportion of the statements were based on information that was unsubstantiated by historical sources and did not correspond to reality, accusing the Jewish people as a group of various historical crimes, Soviet repressions and other tragedies that occurred in the 20th century.
According to law enforcement, whilst serving as a Member of the Seimas, Žemaitaitis, commenting on the news that Israeli forces had demolished a Palestinian school on the social media platform Facebook, allegedly disparaged people of Jewish ethnicity and made anti-Semitic remarks.
According to the indictment, Žemaitaitis, whilst serving as a Member of the Seimas, publicly disseminated, in a speech delivered during a plenary session of parliament, the idea of normalising anti-Semitism directed against people of Jewish nationality, thereby disparaging and inciting hatred towards a group of people and its members on the grounds of their nationality.