Lietuva in brief - 2004-10-13

Lithuania has been reportedly seeking a postponement to the closure of unit one at the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant facility. The government promised the EU that it would close the first reactor by the end of 2004 and the whole plant by 2010 but now wants to close unit one next July. According to Lietuvos Rytas, the state-owned power transmission operator Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy) intends to ask the government this week for the six-month extension, since the state stood to earn an extra 120 million litas (35 million euros) from additional electricity exports and doubts remained about the reliability of alternative power supplies.

Liberal Centrist MP Virginijus Martisauskas (photo) asked the Central Election Committee on Oct. 7 to suspend his MP mandate amid corruption suspicions. He asked the commission to terminate his mandate as of Oct. 8, after the oppositional Liberal and Center Union recommended that he should give it up. Prosecutor general Antanas Klimavicius requested Parliamentary Chairman Arturas Paulauskas to sanction legal actions against Martisauskas on suspicion of extorting a bribe. Martisauskas is suspected of demanding a 20,000 litas (5,800 euro) bribe for his election campaign from Kestutis Siliauskas, director of the Klaipeda region's environment protection department.

Only one-fourth of Lithuanians are happy with the tax policy of the current government and just over one-third (34.8 percent) are satisfied with the performance of the Social Democratic and Social Liberal Cabinet in the social sphere, according to a RAIT poll. Nevertheless, 37 percent of those polled on Sept. 16 - 19 would like the government of Algirdas Brazauskas to stay on after the Oct. 10 parliamentary elections.

Vilnius police detained two drug addicts suspected of setting fire to a police post in the Roma quarter in the early hours of Oct. 6. Vilnius Police Chief Erikas Kaliacius described it as an act of terrorism. Despite strong opposition from the local Roma community, the police station had been established two days earlier in an effort to stop drug flow in the area. The Organized Crime Investigation Service launched a pretrial investigation into the arson. The crime carries a sentence of five to 15 years in prison. No officers were inside the post during the arson.

Officials of the State Security Department in Kaunas have detected a group of document counterfeiters and found forged document equipment. They have not yet ruled out the possibility that persons abroad, using documents forged in Lithuania, could be related with criminal groups in support of international terrorism. The suspects, all of whom are Lithuanian citizens, were detained in Kaunas on Sep. 28. The department is withholding the number of people detained.