Julius Sabatauskas

Stanislava Sabatauskienė (Julius Sabatauskas’s wife) was employed at the Alytus city heating company (UAB “Litesko” Alytaus filialas) around the year 2000, when Sabatauskas – as the municipal controller – conducted an audit of that company and uncovered multiple violations.

He was born into a family of Lithuanian deportees and has lived in Lithuania since 1968.

Julius Sabatauskas was born on 1 April 1958 in Syktyvkar, Komi Autonomous Republic, Russian SFSR (Soviet Union).

Julius Sabatauskas is married to Stanislava Sabatauskienė (often called Stasė).

He is married (to Stanislava Sabatauskienė) and has two daughters.

He obtained a master’s degree in Law in 2003 at the Mykolas Romeris University (formerly Law University of Lithuania).

From 1998 to 2002, he pursued studies in Law and Management at the Law University of Lithuania (now Mykolas Romeris University).

In 1981 Sabatauskas earned an engineer’s qualification in automated control systems after graduating from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute (now Kaunas University of Technology).

In 1976 he graduated from the 1st Secondary School in Jonava, Lithuania.

In 2000, before entering parliament, he served briefly as the controller (auditor) of the Alytus City Municipality.

While serving as Alytus City Municipality Controller in 2000, Sabatauskas led an audit of the local "Litesko" heating company (part of the Rubicon group) – where his wife was employed – and uncovered serious violations, insisting that those responsible be held accountable.

Between 1995 and 2000, he worked in the State Tax Inspectorate system – first as a chief tax inspector in Alytus city (1995–1998), then as chief personnel inspector at the Alytus County Tax Inspectorate (1999–2000).

In 1994–1995, Sabatauskas was the head of the Secretariat of Alytus City Council.

He served as the director of the private company UAB "Gebenė" from 1993 to 1994.

From 1984 to 1993, he worked at the third Mechanization Board in Alytus (now "Alytaus kranai" company) in roles including chief power engineer and safety engineer.

He began his professional career as an engineer at the Alytus Refrigerator Factory (now AB "Snaigė"), where he worked from 1981 to 1984.

He became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (LSDP) in 1989, and has been a member of the party’s council since the late 1990s.

In September 2025, Seimas Speaker Juozas Olekas formally nominated Julius Sabatauskas to become a justice of the Constitutional Court of Lithuania.

On 19 September 2025, he suspended his membership in the Social Democratic Party, following his nomination to serve as a Constitutional Court judge.

In late 2025, the Seimas approved Julius Sabatauskas’s appointment as a Justice of the Constitutional Court, with his term set to begin in March 2026.

He was appointed as Deputy Speaker of the Seimas, serving in that capacity from 17 November 2020 until 14 November 2024 during the 13th Seimas.

In September 2019, Sabatauskas was designated as the Leader of the Opposition in the Seimas, replacing Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen in that role.

In November 2016, the Social Democratic Party considered Sabatauskas as a potential candidate for the post of Minister of Justice after its initial nominee withdrew; he expressed readiness to take on the position, stating that he had sufficient experience for the job, although the coalition partner preferred a younger candidate.

Sabatauskas served in the leadership of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, sitting on the party’s Presidium and Council from 1995 (re-elected in 2001) and heading the LSDP’s Alytus city branch until 2003.

Sabatauskas was a member of the Alytus City Council for a decade, serving from 1990 until 2000 in the municipal council.

From 1990 to 1995, he additionally served as a deputy chairman of the Alytus City Council (on a non-permanent basis).

As of 2025, he is serving as the Chairman of the Seimas Committee on Legal Affairs in the 14th Seimas.

In the later part of the 2016–2020 term, Sabatauskas served on several special parliamentary commissions: he was a member of the Seimas Constitution Commission (2018–2020) and the Anti-Corruption Commission, and in 2019 he joined the Freedom Prize Commission that awards the annual Freedom Prize.

In the 2012–2016 Seimas, he took over as Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee from January 2014 until the end of the term in November 2016.

During the 2008–2012 Seimas term, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee.

Sabatauskas has chaired the Seimas Committee on Legal Affairs multiple times, including a full term as chairman from November 2004 to November 2008.

In 2004, Sabatauskas was the chairman of the Seimas special commission that investigated and led to the impeachment of President Rolandas Paksas.

During the 2000–2004 parliamentary term he was a member of the Seimas Petitions Commission and briefly served as Chairman of the Seimas Legal Affairs Committee from July to November 2004.

Sabatauskas also secured a mandate in the 2024 parliamentary elections (14th Seimas) via the Social Democratic Party’s candidate list.

For the 2024 Seimas election, he did not run again in Alytus; instead Sabatauskas was a candidate in the newly formed Justiniškių–Viršuliškių single-member constituency in Vilnius (while also being elected via the LSDP’s party list).

In the 2020 Seimas elections, Sabatauskas finished fourth in the Alytus single-member constituency’s first round, garnering 12.90% of the vote (approximately 2.1 thousand ballots) and thus failing to advance to the runoff.

In the 2020 parliamentary election, Sabatauskas was 6th on the Social Democratic Party’s list but received the third highest number of preferential votes among LSDP candidates, effectively boosting him to 3rd place on the list and securing one of the party’s 8 proportional seats.

He continued to be re-elected to the Seimas in subsequent elections, securing a seat in 2016 (12th Seimas) and 2020 (13th Seimas) via the LSDP’s multi-member national list.

Sabatauskas has usually been ranked high on the Social Democratic Party’s national candidate list: he was listed 10th on the LSDP list in 2016, moved up to 6th in 2020, and was 18th in 2024.

In the 2016 Seimas elections, Sabatauskas again ran in the Alytus single-member district but was defeated in the runoff: he garnered only 34.83% of the vote in the second round, losing to the LVŽS candidate Robertas Šarknickas (who received 60.74%).

In the October 2012 parliamentary election, Sabatauskas placed second in the first round in Alytus with 4,494 votes (22.57%) and then won the runoff with about 52.8% of the vote, defeating Kęstutis Daukšys of the Labour Party.

In 2012, he won the Alytus single-member district seat again and became a member of the 11th Seimas (2012–2016) as a Social Democratic Party candidate.

He also served as a member of the 2008–2012 Seimas (10th Seimas), having been re-elected in 2008 under the Social Democratic Party’s list representation.

In the 2004 Seimas elections Sabatauskas, running as an independent in the Alytus constituency, won outright in the first round with 8,127 votes (59.14% of the vote).

In 2004 he was elected to the 9th Seimas from the single-member Alytus constituency, running as an independent candidate.

In October 2000, Sabatauskas was first elected to the Seimas (Parliament) as a member of the 8th Seimas on the Algirdas Brazauskas Social Democratic Coalition’s electoral list.

As of late 2024, a rank-and-file Seimas member earns roughly €4,000 per month after taxes, and this parliamentary salary has been Sabatauskas’s primary source of income during his long tenure.

According to asset declarations for 2023, Sabatauskas owned two apartments (total value €28,350), a part of a house (€9,810), and some land (€2,190). He reported €12,586 in personal savings, while his wife’s savings were €52,878 that year.

Observers noted that Sabatauskas’s declared family wealth saw an unexplained surge in 2023 – jumping by over €63,000 in one year to about €146,164 – after having decreased in the prior years. As Sabatauskas had no obvious new income sources beyond his MP salary, this sudden increase stood out as unusual.

After 2019, the Sabatauskas family’s net worth initially declined (from about €108.8k in 2020 to €82.3k in 2022) but then jumped by over €63,000 in one year – reaching a total declared wealth of €146,164 in 2023.

As of 2019, Sabatauskas’s family declared relatively modest assets, including a flat valued at only €7,466, a small plot of land (~€500), and an older car (~€6,500), while holding notable savings (about €41,459 in his own accounts and €43,723 in his wife’s). This made him one of the least wealthy members of the Social Democratic faction at that time.

Sabatauskas was elected President of the Lithuanian Chess Federation in 2002, taking a leading role in the organization of chess in Lithuania.

He initiated the Alytus City Study Support Fund and served as its chairman until 2003; since its start in 1998, the fund has provided scholarships to 125 students from underprivileged families in Alytus.

He is a member of the trade union for civil servants in Lithuania.

In 2004, a potential conflict-of-interest issue arose when it was revealed that Sabatauskas’s wife was being paid by the "Rubicon group," a business conglomerate implicated in a political corruption scandal. Sabatauskas called these accusations ridiculous and insisted that he has never represented Rubicon’s interests.

In February 2013, as Legal Affairs Committee chairman, Sabatauskas acknowledged that the hastily adopted constitutional amendments on allowing impeached officials to run for office were rushed and of poor quality.

In 1990, Sabatauskas and his family joined an expedition to the Komi Autonomous Republic (Russia) to honor Lithuanian deportees; a book titled "Komių žemėje" (In the Land of Komi) by Rimvydas Racėnas was published in 1995, chronicling this expedition.

He initiated the erection of a memorial in Syktyvkar (Komi Republic) in 1990 to honor Lithuanian exiles who perished there after the mass deportations.