Rolandas Paksas Information & Rolandas Paksas Links at HealthHaven.com

Rolandas Paksas
	Rolandas Paksas
	;
President of Lithuania
	In office; 26 February 2003 – 6 April 2004
Preceded by	Valdas Adamkus
Succeeded by	Artūras Paulauskas
Born	10 June 1956 (age 53); Telšiai, Lithuania (then USSR)
Political party	Order and Justice, Lithuanian Liberal Democrats

Rolandas Paksas ( pronunciation (help·info)) (born 10 June 1956) is a Lithuanian politician who currently heads the Order and Justice Party. He was the President of Lithuania from 26 February 2003 to 6 April 2004, when he was impeached. He is the first European head of state to have been impeached.

[edit] Early life, education and non-political career

Born in Telšiai, Lithuania, Rolandas Paksas was the only child of Feliksas and Elena Paksas.

In 1974, he graduated from Žemaitės Secondary School in Telšiai.

In 1979, he graduated from Vilnius Civil Engineering Institute (now Vilnius Gediminas Technical University) with a degree in Industrial and Civil Engineering.

From 1979 to 1985, he worked as a pilot instructor.

From 1985 to 1992, he worked as Director of the Darius and Girėnas Flying Club in Vilnius.

In 1984, he graduated Leningrad Civil Aviation Academy as an engineer pilot.

During this period, he competed in aerobatics competitions. He won the national aerobatics championship in Lithuania several times, the national championship of the Soviet Union twice and was the winner of international aerobatics competitions.

From 1992 to 1997, Rolandas Paksas was the President of the construction company "Restako".

[edit] Political career

Paksas, a former member of Communist Party of Lithuania (LKP) and its successor leftist Democratic Labour Party (LDDP) in 1995 switched his political orientation in favour of conservative right Homeland Union (Lithuanian Conservatives). On 11 April 1997, Rolandas Paksas was elected to Vilnius City Council and became the Mayor of the Vilnius city municipality. He helped reconstruct the Vilnius Old Town that was neglected by the Lithuanian SSR and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Paksas also served as chairman of Vilnius branch of the Homeland Union (Lithuanian Conservatives).

As early as August 1998, Paksas was mentioned in Verslo Žinios ("Business News") as a possible candidate to replace Prime Minister of Lithuania Gediminas Vagnorius if he got a vote of no confidence in the Seimas. In 1998, in a survey published by Lietuvos Rytas, Paksas was voted one of the most influential 5 people of the year.

In May 1999, Vagnorius stepped down and President Valdas Adamkus asked Paksas to become the Prime Minister. The Conservatives had 68 of the Seimas' 138 seats and were part of an 81-member coalition with the Lithuanian Christian Democrats. He did not accept the post immediately as he joked that his bodyguards would not fit into his stunt plane.

In June 1999, he became Prime Minister, heading the ninth Government after independence. Five months later, he resigned because of a disagreement over the sale of Mažeikių Nafta, the Lithuanian oil refining company to American oil company Williams Companies. After his resignation, he became an Adviser to the President of Lithuania and Plenipotentiary of the President for Special Assignments.

After leaving Homeland Union Paksas joined Liberal Union of Lithuania and in April 2000, he became the Mayor of the Vilnius city municipality again.

In 2000, he was elected as the Prime Minister in the eleventh Cabinet and served from November 2000 to June 2001.

In March 2002, Paksas was elected as a chairman of his newly founded Liberal Democratic Party. On 5 January 2003, he was elected President of Lithuania, after a surprise win over the incumbent Valdas Adamkus in a runoff. In the first round of elections, Paksas finished second with 19.7% of vote but, in the runoff, he gathered 54.9%.

On 26 February 2003 his term as a President began. During his term, Rolandas Paksas had been accused by his opponents of having ties with the Russian mafia although this was never proven. He had allegedly tried to extort some private companies, like the road construction company Žemaitijos keliai, by putting pressure on their owners. Yuri Borisov, a President of an aviation company, Avia Baltika, who had financed Paksas' political campaign was given Lithuanian citizenship by Paksas decree. This decree was later ruled to be unconstitutional by Constitutional Court of Lithuania. Paksas' connections were investigated by the Department of Security. In early 2004, the Seimas started impeachment proceedings against him. On 31 March 2004 the Constitutional Court of Lithuania found him guilty. After the Constitutional Court's ruling, the Seimas effectively removed him from the presidency through a secret ballot on 6 April 2004.

Paksas attempted to run for the presidency again in the newly-called elections of 13 June 2004. His attempts were effectively ended on 4 May 2004, when – as per the Constitutional Court's ruling – an amendment to Lithuania's Election Law was made banning an impeached President from running again for any public office requiring an oath. This prevents Paksas from running for either President or Legislative office.

Apparently, Paksas has not renounced his political ambitions. In an interview with a Lithuanian daily, Kauno diena, on 27 October 2005, Paksas claimed that he is going to become the President of Lithuania once again. The journalist, considering the new election law, asked Paksas just how he was going to become a President. Paksas, however, declined to elaborate and commented that he would be a "bad politician" if he went into details.

He also did not disclose if he has ambitions to become a mayor of Vilnius once again (mayors in Lithuania do not take oaths, exempting them from the ban).

Paksas, as Chairman of the Liberal Democrats of Lithuania, caused controversy when he announced on 12 January 2006 that he is admitting Audrius Butkevičius to the party. Butkevičius was once Defense Minister and MP who was convicted and served time in jail for taking bribes back in 1998.

[edit] Legal trouble following impeachment

Paksas was convicted in 2005 by a District Court of Vilnius for disclosing classified information (state secrets) during his time in office as a president of the Republic (after the impeachment was over, and he was removed from office, the prosecution charged him with revealing a state secret to his financial sponsor, the Russian businessman Jurij Borisov).

The prosecution accused Paksas of leaking secret information. On 17 March 2003 Paksas hinted to Borisov, in one of their private conversations, that Borisov's phones were tapped and that his calls were being screened by the authorities–information Paksas earlier received and was briefed on by the head of Lithuania's National Security Department. He was found guilty by the District Court; however, since he was already removed from the office, the Court deemed it unnecessary to impose on him a punishment. It was concluded that, albeit guilty, Paksas no longer presented a danger to the State.

However, Paksas appealed to the Supreme Court of Lithuania, arguing that there was no direct evidence to suggest that he leaked a state secret during the time when he served as the President of the Republic. He hired top lawyers of Lithuania, specializing in criminal law, to defend him in front of the Supreme Court panel consisting of seven judges.

The Supreme Court, on 13 December 2005, acquitted Paksas and overturned the verdict of the District Court. The ruling cannot be appealed.

Paksas praised the Supreme Court's ruling and announced his plans to continue fighting in the courts. He is now planning to attack the Constitutional Court's decision of 2004, which found him guilty of violating the Constitution of the Republic on three counts, and breaking his oath. Paksas assured that he intends to petition the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, as he claimed that the 2004 ruling of the Constitutional Court, and the subsequent decision of the Seimas to remove him from office were unconstitutional.

Paksas and his party are currently looking for ways to annul the Constitutional Court's ruling since it prevents him from holding major public office again.

[edit] Other controversies

In 1993 210,000 US dollars were transferred from Russian oil company LukOil to Paksas account in Austria. Paksas supposedly cashed in the money and took it to Lithuania. Investigation was launched in Russia focusing on the Paksas' company Restako alleged involvement in embezzlement of Russian companies funds. Paksas however explained, that the money never reached Lithuania, because the case with money supposedly was stolen from him in Austria. [1]

[edit] Personal life

Rolandas Paksas is married. His wife Laima is an economist and they have two children: daughter Inga (married) and son Mindaugas.^[1]. His relations with Georgian clairvoyant Lena Lolishvili were widely criticized in Lithuanian mass media.

[edit] References

^ The Baltic tortoise | World news | guardian.co.uk

[edit] External links

Liberal Democrats Party of Lithuania.
Biographical facts from the NATO website.

[edit] See also

Andrius Vilkancas, FOCUS-Lithuania mayor nominated prime minister, Reuters News, 10 May 1999.

Preceded by Valdas Adamkus	President of Lithuania 2003 – 2004	Succeeded by Artūras Paulauskas
Preceded by Irena Degutienė (acting)	Prime Minister of Lithuania 18 May 1999 – 27 October 1999	Succeeded by Irena Degutienė (acting)
Preceded by Andrius Kubilius	Prime Minister of Lithuania 26 October 2000–20 June 2001	Succeeded by Eugenijus Gentvilas (acting)

[0] The Baltic tortoise | World news | guardian.co.uk

[1]

Contents