VILNIUS — Erikas Vaitekūnas, one of the prosecutors from Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office,  was arrested on suspicion of bribery by the Special Investigation Service (STT).

The case is yet another blow for the credibility of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which has been under fire all this year for its handling of the Drąsius Kedys case.

The STT on Monday raided the office arresting Vaitekūnas on the allegation that he had been involved in the passing of a 30,000 litai (€8,700) bribe at a detention facility.

Via its representative Žimantas Pacevičius, the STT said they could not comment and that the case had been passed to the pre-trial investigation section of the Prosecutor General’s Office, where Vaitekūnas previously worked.

“I want to emphasize that the case is at the disposal of the General Prosecutor’s Office and assigned to the prosecutor,” Pacevičius told the Baltic News Service.

Currently, the prosecutor is being detained for 48 hours during which he will be questioned. A decision will be made about whether or not to remove him from his job.

“There will be a solution to this issue. This moment is a pre-trial investigation by a judge ruling on his removal from office and this issue today or tomorrow will be resolved. This means that it is determined what detention we have to designate,” Mindaugas Dūda, of the general prosecutor’s organized crime and corruption investigation department, said on Tuesday at a press conference.

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