VILNIUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2022) The Lithuanian parliament has approved amendments to the Constitution reinstating election rights for impeached Lithuanian President Rolandas Paksas, the parliament's press office said on Thursday.
"The amendments are intended to carry out the ruling of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) of January 6, 2011 in the case Paksas v. Lithuania, which found Lithuania in violation of Article 3 of Protocol 1 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, guaranteeing the right to free elections, due to the permanent and irreversible restriction against the applicant's 'passive' right to run for legislative office," the office said.
Paksas won the presidential election in Lithuania and assumed office in 2003. In 2004, the Seimas impeached Paksas soon after the Constitutional Court of Lithuania found him guilty of violating the constitution and his oath of office for granting Yuri Borisov, the president of the aviation company Avia Baltika, Lithuanian citizenship by presidential decree. Paksas was also accused of allegedly leaking classified information to Borisov and interfering in a privatization transaction.
The parliament also passed a constitutional amendment barring impeached individuals from running for the presidency for five years following impeachment. The Constitutional Court ruled the amendment unconstitutional, and barred those who had violated the constitution from holding public offices.
Paksas appealed the decision in the European Court of Human Rights, which in 2011 ruled the decision of the Constitutional Court disproportionate, and thus in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
According to the amendment adopted by the Lithuanian parliament on Thursday, anyone removed from office can now run and hold public offices 10 years after the removal of the mandate. The amendment was approved by 134 out of 135 lawmakers; however, a lawmaker voting against the amendment asked the Seimas to consider that he voted in favor, the office said.
