The move is related to an ongoing criminal case involving Žemaitaitis, leader of the party the Nemunas Dawn, who is suspected of inciting hatred against the Jews and public denial or trivialisation of international crime.
The MP took the oath of office last week after October’s parliamentary elections and gained immunity from prosecution. He claimed that he would relinquish legal immunity himself as he maintained his innocence.
The case was opened amid accusations of antisemitism when the politician made a post on social network Facebook on 8 May 2023, commenting about the Israeli forces destroying an EU-funded Palestinian school. He called Israelis animals and cited an antisemitic rhyme.
Prosecutor Justas Laucius earlier stated that during a parliamentary sitting Žemaitaitis also spread the idea normalising antisemitism, expressing contempt and hatred for a group of people on the grounds of their ethnicity.
Žemaitaitis also made Facebook posts on 13, 14 and 15 June 2023 and is accused of grossly trivialising the genocide of the Jews in the territory of Lithuania committed by the Nazi Germany.
According to Laucius, in one of his posts Žemaitaitis wrote that not the Nazis but the Jews carried out the Pirčiupiai massacre.
On 3 June 1944, the Nazis burned alive 119 residents of Pirčiupiai village. The massacre happened after a Red Army unit killed 6 German soldiers. In retaliation, the Nazis surrounded part of Pirčiupiai village, locked 69 children, 29 women and 21 men in houses and burned them.
As reported, in April 2024 the Constitutional Court ruled that Žemaitaitis violated the Constitution and breached his oath by making antisemitic statements online. He stepped down from parliament the same month to avoid impeachment and a ban on elections. In October 2024, he was elected to the Seimas again with his Nemunas Dawn party.