The Vilnius District Prosecutor's Office has terminated a pre-trial investigation against the former Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament, Arunas Valinskas, involving charges of incitement of hatred. Cobalt represented Valinskas in the process.
According to Cobalt, the charges were related to Valinskas's statements in a broadcast of the Delfi.it website on October 14 of this year. According to the firm, “commenting on the results of the [parliamentary] elections and talking about the chairman of the Lithuanian Polish Election Campaign - the Union of Christian Families (LLRA-KSS), A. Valinskas expressed statements that potentially despise, incite hatred, and violence, and encourage a physical crackdown with a group of people or a person belonging to it because of their nationality, beliefs, and views. In the decision to terminate the pre-trial investigation, the prosecutor notes that the content of A. Valinskas's statement about certain persons involved in politics is of a derogatory and offensive nature. The former politician exercised his freedom of self-expression by choosing inappropriate means of linguistic terms and thus possibly violated ethical and moral norms, but not the value protected by the norms of Article 170 of the Criminal Code - the equality of persons.”
According to Cobalt, “after evaluating the data obtained during the pre-trial investigation, the testimony of witnesses, and the conclusions of specialists, the prosecutor of the Vilnius District Prosecutor's Office adopted a resolution to terminate the pre-trial investigation into possible incitement of hatred, stating that no act indicative of a crime or misdemeanor had been committed.”
Cobalt’s team was led by Partner Mindaugas Bliuvas.