MP Igor M. Charged with Slander against PM Fico
Bratislava, October 5 (TASR) – A prosecutor at the Bratislava Regional Prosecutor’s Office has pressed charges of slander against MP Igor M. over his claims that Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) had secret accounts in Belize, the prosecutor’s office’s spokesman Michal Surek told TASR on Thursday.
According to Surek, the charges were pressed on September 14, after the police in the summer concluded their investigation with a recommendation to press charges against the MP.
Fico at a later press conference declined to comment on the move.
“I’ve never commented on the decisions of law-enforcement authorities, and I won’t do it, either,” said Fico.
Igor M. said on Thursday that the charges didn’t surprise him, as both Fico and Interior Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) control the police and prosecutors’ offices.
“At first, they entrusted the investigation to their court investigator at the National Crime Agency (NAKA), whose standard course of action is to bully Opposition politicians and sweep coalition scandals under the carpet. After he concluded the investigation, the supervisory prosecutor swept his efforts from the table, however,” said Igor M., adding that “Fico’s friend” Deputy Prosecutor General Peter Sufliarsky then intervened and forced the supervisory prosecutor to abandon his original opinion.
“It’s interesting that NAKA and the Prosecutor General’s Office still hadn’t made even a single step to check whether Fico owned a letterbox company in Belize worth €700 million on its accounts or not,” said Igor M., adding that the letter by Belizean authorities stating that neither Fico, nor his wife had any accounts in the country actually has little value.
“It’s rubbish, of course. No letterbox company owner has the firm and the related accounts registered under their own name, but under the name of a ‘white horse’ instead. This is what the fight against corruption directed by Fico really looks like,” added Igor M.
Igor M. went public with the claims regarding Fico’s alleged accounts in 2015, citing an anonymous letter he had received. Via a letterbox company, Fico and his wife allegedly had $674 million on two accounts in Belize.
The authorities in Belize later told the Slovak police that Fico and his wife never had any accounts in the country.
