5.  The applicant was born in 1950 and lives in the Vilnius area. 6.  On 4 March 1992 the applicant was awarded a Commemorative “13 January” Medal (bestowed upon persons who distinguished themselves when defending the freedom and independence of Lithuania during the period January-September 1991). By the Presidential order of 30 September 1996 the applicant was awarded the Medal of Founding Volunteers of the Lithuanian Army. 7.  On 12 September 2000 a special governmental commission (“the Commission”) found that the applicant had been a “former secret collaborator” (slapta bendradarbiavęs asmuo) under the Law on registering, confession, entry into records and protection of persons who have admitted to secret collaboration with special services of the former USSR, and decided to publish this information in the “Official Gazette” (Valstybės žinios). 8.  The applicant brought proceedings before the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court requesting it to quash the Commission’s conclusion as to his former collaboration. On 7 May 2001 the court partly granted the applicant’s claim, establishing that there had been a lack of evidence of the applicant having been a KGB collaborator. 9.  On 3 July 2001 the Supreme Administrative Court quashed the lower court’s decision. It was found that the applicant had indeed been a KGB collaborator while working as a sports journalist and travelling abroad in the 1980s. 10.  On 23 July 2001 the Commission published information in the “Official Gazette” to the effect that, in the past, the applicant had collaborated with the special services of the former USSR, namely with the KGB. 11.  On 27 July 2001 the applicant was dismissed from his post as an official at the Human Resources Department of the Ministry of the Interior. The decree by which he was dismissed stipulated that the reason for the dismissal was the information regarding his collaboration, which the Commission had published on 23 July 2001. 12.  The applicant again challenged the Commission’s conclusions in its decision of 12 September 2000 as being null and void. On 31 October 2001 the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court dismissed the action on procedural grounds, finding that there had been a final court decision on the issue. The case was discontinued. 13.  On 12 December 2001 the Supreme Administrative Court reopened the proceedings to have the evidence better examined and to establish guidelines for a common judicial practice in similar future cases. 14.  On 16 January 2002 the Supreme Administrative Court examined the merits of the applicant’s complaints, dismissing his request to quash the decision of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court of 31 October 2001. The Supreme Administrative Court found that the lower courts had reasonably concluded that the applicant had secretly collaborated with the secret services of the former USSR. The court noted that the applicant’s rights in examining the evidence and questioning the witnesses had not been curtailed. That decision was final.
On an unspecified date the applicant submitted a request to the Supreme Administrative Court seeking the reopening of the procedure, alleging violations of material legal norms in the decisions in his case. On 16 May 2002, the court dismissed his request as unfounded. 15.  The applicant alleged that he had been disbarred from practising as a barrister as a result of the impugned domestic decisions.