Updated at 13:45,15-04-2024

Criminal case against Lithuanian police officer investigated by KGB

BelaPAN

The materials of the criminal case against Laimonas Bankauskas have been referred to the Hrodna regional department of the Committee for State Security (KGB), which will be carrying out the inquiry, KGB spokesman Alyaksandr Antanovich told BelaPAN.

He said that no details of the case would be made public for the time being "for the sake of the Lithuanian citizen's interests and the investigation's impartiality."

The head of the Vilnius mounted police force was apprehended by officers of the Ashmyany Customhouse and the KGB for drugs possession on August 16.

As much as 45.5 grams of amphetamine was said to have been found inside his car during an examination at the Kamenny Loh checkpoint. He has been held in a pretrial detention center in Hrodna since his arrest.

Questions have been raised over Mr. Bankauskas' arrest as his relatives and Lithuanian law enforcement officials suggest that the drugs may have been planted in his car by KGB officers in an attempt to recruit him as an agent.

The KGB has dismissed the suspicions as "speculation."