(Translation from Lithuanian; posted in “Respublika” by Sidas Aksomaitis on 26 May 2012)
This
week’s “Respublika” person of the week – Kaunas District Civil Court
judge Neringa Venckiene, who after several years of fighting for his
brother’s Drasius Kedys daughter has lost the girl and is feeling severe
pressure from politicians and juridical system officers, but who still
believes, that her fight is not over yet.
Journalist:
Do you feel defeated after the fight with the system that has taken
away the girl and now has intentions to put you behind bars?
Neringa
Venckiene: If we look at it as a whole, then it is all so horrible and
disgusting, but I have put up with and suffered so much in these last
four years, that it does not even bother me too much that they have
plans to take away my immunity. I am much more scared for the girl,
because they took her away as a thing, only that “thing” was shouting
and screaming… I cannot find proper words to describe how the child
rights representatives were behaving in and after this situation.
After
the abduction of the girl, I was writing every single day to the Kaunas
District and Kaunas City child rights specialists, asking to bind Laima
Stankunaite to allow me to see my niece. From Kaunas District child
rights I found out that my requests have been sent to Kaunas City child
rights protection department, and from this department’s head Bitute
Daugeliene I got an answer, that my requests “will be decided upon
according to the existing laws and regulations”. This is how the child
rights work here…
Only
because of such bureaucrats I will fight that each and every one of
them would be punished. The girl lived in my home for the last four
years, was healed from the perverts’ abuse with all my effort, and now
they even do not allow me to see her!
Journalist:
Why prosecutors are so eagerly attacking you, while they take upon the
ones who wasted millions through their criminal activities only after
long convincing?
Neringa
Venckiene: They are afraid of me – even in the Parliament everyone is
terrified from the thought that I might go into politics. I can tell
you, that I do not need their politics, but I will never back down. And
while not giving up I have no other choice – only to become a
politician. I need this in order that the politicians of today, who are
trying their best to put me behind bars, would be held responsible for
their own violations and criminal acts. For this very reason – I have no
other choice. And they are very well aware of this, they expect me to
enter politics and that is why they are trying to eliminate me in all
possible ways.
It
is hard to say what kind of influence politicians have on the
prosecutors, but the prosecutor general, Darius Valys, showed not his
best side in his appeal to the parliament.
I
definitely had a better opinion about D. Valys – I thought that an
officer from a province will not be corrupt and will be trying to make
changes in the system, but now it is clear, that he is singing to the
same tune of Kestutis Betingis and Algimantas Kliunka , and others
sympathizing with them.
Journalist:
Is it possible to reach that the system would investigate the crime
instead of dragging the person who reported the crime from court room to
court room?
Neringa
Venckiene: After what has happened to our family, I would never do as
we did. I have learned my lesson. Now they blame me that I have said
that there is no justice and this country is not a juridical
country…Until this tragedy came upon our family, I was completely
convinced that there is justice in this country. For this very reason, I
helped my brother to fight according to the laws. But now, I would
never ever ask for help from such system – I do not need any help
neither from the prosecutors’ office, nor courts. I used all possible
juridical means to protect the girl, but still could not reach that the
guilty ones would be punished and the murderer of my brother Drasius
would be indentified. Now the only way to attain this is to go into
parliament. If ones dare to kill, others dare to drag the girl by force
while breaking my arms, it means they can do anything.
Journalist: What do you think an ordinary person should do to receive justice?
Neringa
Venckiene: We need to unite and swipe out the Parliament and the
juridical system, and start all over again from the scratch, because it
is impossible to live anymore with what we have now. There are no words
to describe the level of corruption in Lithuania today. There are only
few just and decent people in today’s ruling power and juridical system,
but the remaining mass is horrifying. Those corrupt should not even
dream that people do not know about their criminal acts – Lithuania is
small, here everyone knows who takes bribes, and who doesn’t. Everyone
knows the names of the officers that can be bribed and even the sums of
money they ask.
Journalist:
So what is the reason that everything stays as it is except for a few
sacrifices and the judges still claim they are impeccable even though
people know who is corrupted?
Neringa
Venckiene: This is the practice of the head of the Lithuanian Highest
Court (LAT) Gintaras Kryzevicius, when those who sympathize with him get
one kind of treatment, and those who have opposing views are treated
differently. I am from the latter ones, that’s why I am getting
disciplinary warnings one after another. After more than ten years of
practice as a judge, I have not received even one complaint or warning
for not performing my duties properly. I am getting so many of them only
now, when I am doing all I can to protect my niece from the perverts.
Even the opinion of the committee of judges matches that of Laima
Stankunaite. What I think is that we now have Lithuania of many
Stankunaite – in parliament, in courts and in prosecutors’ office.
Journalist:
You say that people should unite and fight the system, but as you
remember the protest in front of the parliament that was organized by
Romualdas Ozolas and Bronislovas Genzelis, the signatories of the
Independence Restitution Act, has showed that initiatives like that can
lead to endless days in court rooms.
Neringa
Venckiene: This is utterly shocking. So why don’t they give permits to
allow protests and gatherings? Why the politicians that have been
elected by people do not want to hear those very people? They need to
allow express the opinion publicly, since in no other democratic country
no one opposes the protests. I think the main reason is that the ones
in ruling power are afraid of honest people who could replace all the
corrupt ones. Let’s put together all the judges, politicians, police
heads – and you will see that their number is nothing compared to the
number of ordinary people. If all those people would unite and rise up
to the fight against the corrupt system – what we see happening today
would come to an end very quickly. That is why they are doing all they
can so that the society remains divided.
Two
disciplinary cases, which were raised against Neringa Venckiene by the
Judges’ Ethics and Disciplinary Committee, have been analyzed by Judges’
Honor Court yesterday and united into one disciplinary case.
The
Judges’ Honor Court will announce on 22nd June if they will propose to
the president Dalia Grybauskaite to terminate Neringa Venckiene.
One
of the cases that had been raised against Neringa Venckiene was for the
incident that happened on 9th January in Garliava Family Clinic, where
Neringa Venckiene was trying with no success to get a health check-up
certificate for the homeschooling program for her niece. As Neringa
Venckiene claims, the GP had registered her niece with the doctors’
committee for consultation, but the doctors would not even agree to see
the girl.
Another
case was raised after the Bailiffs’ Presidium has reported that the
judge (Neringa Venckiene) was asking for the bailiff Sonata
Vaicekauskiene, who was hiding the details of the second attempt to take
away the girl, to be filmed day and night.
(prepared by the daily newspaper “Respublika”)
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