A Lithuanian Court of Appeal has acquitted MEP Petras Gražulis of inciting contempt against LGBTI people, overturning his October 2025 conviction and wiping out a 10,000-euro fine.

The case stemmed from 26 May 2022, when Gražulis confronted LGBTI activists outside the Seimas after a vote backing a civil-union bill, calling them “degenerates” and using other slurs. Five people were recognised as victims; three had been awarded compensation by the trial court.

Delivering the new verdict in late April 2026, Judge Justas Namavicius said no criminal act had been committed. The Court of Appeal accepted that Gražulis’s remarks were offensive but ruled this fell short of criminal incitement of hatred. The civil claims were left unexamined.

The Vilnius Regional Court had taken the opposite view, finding that words like “pederasts” and “perverts” were attacks on human dignity, not political speech, and that as a public official Gražulis’s words carried particular weight.

Gražulis, who did not attend the hearing, said the acquittal surprised him and offered an apology for his original statement. He had previously vowed to fight the conviction up to the Supreme Court of Lithuania and to seek backing from US President Donald Trump.

Prosecutors or victims may still file a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court of Lithuania. No decision has been announced.

The ruling is a setback for Lithuania’s LGBTI community in a year that has otherwise seen progress: in April 2025, the Constitutional Court found the lack of legal recognition for same-sex partnerships unconstitutional, and a civil-union bill is expected back in the Seimas this year.

A cassation appeal with the Supreme Court of Lithuania may still be files challenging the Court of Appeal’s acquittal.