VILNIUS — The Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office announced that it will finish the pre-trial investigation into the alleged sexual abuse of the daughter of Drąsius Kedys.
The case was nearly a year old before the Oct. 5 murder of one of those alleged to have molested the girl, Kaunas District Judge Jonas Furmanavičius. On his website www.pedofiliai.com, which has now been taken down, Kedys accused Furmanavičius, Andrius Ūsas, director of the Eurotechnika manufacturing company in Kaunas, and another man only named as Aidas of participating in pedophiliac orgies with his daughter with the consent of her mother. After shifting from the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office to the General Prosecutor’s Office, the alleged pedophilia case is now under investigation by the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
“This week, the preliminary investigation will be completed,” Gintautas Stalnionis, a Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office spokesman told Baltic News Service.
Ūsas, who remains under police protection denies the charges as did Furmanavičius. Aidas has never been publicly identified by either Kedys or authorities.
Damaged reputation
Kedys’ accusation that the prosecutor’s offices were not properly investigating his case so as to protect Judge Furmanavičius has been construed by the thousands of Kedys supporters as the motivation behind the double murders, which they call an act of justified vigilantism. The case is a testament to deep-felt cynicism some Lithuanians have toward their criminal justice system.
While prosecutor’s offices said the main reason the investigations sputtered out was Kedys’ own uncooperative behavior, they’ve acknowledged that errors were made. Genovaitė Ročienė, a prosecutor at the District Prosecutor’s Office of the City of Kaunas was dismissed for mishandling the investigation of the sexual assault of Kedys’ daughter. Four prosecutors from Kaunas Prosecutor’s Office and two prosecutors from Prosecutor General’s Office were also penalized.
They may not be all. On Wednesday General Prosecutor Algimantas Valantinas will meet with President Dalia Grybauskaitė to discuss whether or not he should keep his position. Valantinas said he would resign earlier this month if it would benefit law enforcement in the country in an interview with Baltic News Service, but at the same time said that he didn’t think it would help.
Kedys still free
Meanwhile Kedys, who has been wanted on an Interpol warrent as the primary suspect in October’s double murder in Kaunas remains on the loose, with police offering no new information about his status.
