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Lithuanian food safety chief to continue his duty despite scandal: officials

Xinhua, August 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Director of Lithuania's State Food and Veterinary Service (VMVT) Jonas Milius will continue his work despite the scandal about food contaminated by harmful bacteria which erupted at the end of July, officials said after a government meeting on Wednesday.

According to Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius, the government does not have corresponding legal measures at its disposal to dismiss Milius from his current office.

"General prosecutor's office said in its response to the government that the presumption of innocence is valid during pre-trial investigation, therefore, they don't ask for dismissal of Milius," Butkevicius was quoted as saying by ELTA news agency.

As reported, the general prosecutor's office of Lithuania started a pre-trial investigation into the case back in July in which Milius, director of the food safety authorities, is suspected of abuse of office and forgery of documents.

It is suspected that VMVT could hide information about human health-threatening bacteria found in frozen dumplings produced by Judex, a manufacturing company based in the Lithuanian city Kaunas.

Milius refused to resign, claiming he did not break any rules at his duties.

Lithuania's cabinet of ministers also instructed on Wednesday the Ministry of Agriculture to evaluate the findings provided by the law enforcement agencies and to oblige the director of VMVT to submit his activity report for 2015 and the first half of 2016. The report would be discussed at the government's meeting on Sept.7.

The prime minister and the agriculture minister expressed the hope that the scandal will not have an impact on Lithuanian food exports. Endit