The court points out that the man confirmed that he had become aware of the existing problems regarding the discharge of waste water used for production into the environment by people working at the company. He said he spoke about it on several occasions with the chairman of the board of directors, now accused Gintautas Pangonis. However, according to V. Beržonskis, at that time the solution to the problem of wastewater treatment and its discharge into the environment was increasingly deferred.
V. Beržonskis confirmed in court that as a business manager, being a responsible person, he then realized that the water used in production was discharged into the environment, causing damage to nature , but he didn’t quit because he avoided confrontation with senior management and didn’t want to lose his job. V. Beržonskis said that he would not be able to answer the question of the participants in the process about why he was removed from office. According to V. Beržonskis, this happened by agreement of the parties.
The report notes that in previous hearings, Grigeo Klaipėda’s representative stated that there were fundamental contradictions in the case between the decisions of the prosecutor’s office, the Environmental Protection Department (AAD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EAA) and/or actions to determine whether the company is biologically pollutants that entered with incompletely treated wastewater caused significant harm (significant adverse change) to the state of the water body of the Curonian Lagoon when deciding how this damage allegedly caused should be compensated, by implementing environmental restoration measures – the removal of pollutants – or the deposit of a civil court action for compensation.
According to the lawyer for the company’s representative, the case is politicized, so there is a great threat that the ongoing process will not be objective and fair.
According to him, the politicians made their comments on the case in the public space, which had a negative impact on the preliminary investigation institutions, the courts examining and hearing the case and the public administration institutions. .
In the explanations, the representative of the company drew attention to the fact that the company does not exercise and does not exercise public functions, therefore the former or current employees of the company cannot be equated with officials and they cannot be charged with a felony act – abuse, the report notes.
According to the representative of the company, the prosecution is totally unjustified in accusing the company and individuals of having committed criminal acts as an organized group. According to him, it is not known how the organized group was created and functioned, who distributed the roles, how the control mechanisms worked, who made the decisions and when, for what specific period the defendants are responsible, what actions actions they performed, how those actions manifested in objective reality, and what caused specific effects.
In his previous speech, the lawyer representing the company pointed out that the activities of other entities, including foreign ones, cause damage to the Curonian Lagoon.
Previously, the Environmental Protection Department (AAD) submitted to the accused legal entity “Grigeo Klaipėda” a possible settlement agreement with the state regarding damage compensation and environmental restoration measures – the company seeking peace with the state had promised him 48 million euros estimated by environmentalists because of the pollution of the Curonian lagoon. offset the damage done to nature by removing pollutants from the lagoon and upgrading the city’s wastewater treatment facilities. However, this plan was not approved by the AAD.
In this case, charges of misuse, falsification of documents and disposal of them, as well as violations of environmental protection rules were brought against the joint-stock company “Grigeo Klaipėda” and 14 others current and former employees of this company.
In the criminal case, which received a great response in the company, in which the indictment consists of more than 300 pages, the shareholder and chairman of the board of directors of the group Grigeo G. Pangonis, l he current director of the Klaipėda company Tomas Eikinas, and three other former directors of this company are among the defendants.
During searches and other preliminary investigative actions carried out on the territory of the enterprise, the officers managed to find special sewage pollution facilities and obtain other significant first data. At the request of the prosecutor, the discharge of untreated sewage into the Curonian Lagoon was immediately stopped.
The environmental damage was determined by the Department of Environmental Protection, which filed a civil suit against the company for more than 48 million euros.
Source: The Delfi
