16 people acquitted in fraudulent accounting case 

Ten years of investigation and trial in the meat processing company case. Sixteen people were acquitted, and the Lithuanian Supreme Court closed the case. 

A high-profile investigation by the Financial Crime Investigation Service into the meat-processing sector ended with a final verdict by the Lithuanian Supreme Court, which acquitted a total of 16 people. From the beginning of the trial, NOOR partner Giedrius Danėlius defended one of the 16 defendants – the head of the company. 

According to the lawyer, the case did not prove that there was a common agreement among the individuals to commit fraudulent accounting, and it was denied that meat products were traded without the necessary accounting documents. “It is very important that all the courts that dealt with the case evaluated the evidence that not only indicted but also acquitted the individuals and rightly pointed out the gaps in the pre-trial investigation and the shortcomings of the prosecution,” Giedrius Danėlius noted. 

The Supreme Court of Lithuania stated that during the pre-trial investigation, the opportunity to remove the doubts that had arisen in the case was lost due to the chosen tactics and objective circumstances. Therefore, the courts assessed the doubts in accordance with the principle of in dubio pro reo (all doubts in favour of the defendant), and no error in the application of the law was committed. 

The case was closed and it was denied that meat products had been traded without the necessary accounting documents.