Courts: Masin Can Return to Work as NAKA Investigator

        Bratislava, November 15 (TASR) -Stefan Masin can return to work as a NAKA investigator, according to an injunction issued by the Bratislava City Court IV. TASR learnt the news from a post published by Masina's attorney Peter Kubina on a social network on Wednesday.
        "Today the Bratislava City Court IV accommodated a significant part of our proposal to issue an injunction and ruled that, after a short hiatus, investigator Stefan Masin will return to work, too," said Kubina. The decision can be appealed against within 15 days.
        In late October, new Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) decided to suspend six police officers centred around Jan Curilla, who had been investigating high-profile corruption cases of Smer-SD nominees. Smer-SD claimed that the investigations had been manipulated. Sutaj Estok cited the law, according to which a police officer must be suspended if there are substantiated suspicions that he or she committed a crime. Kubina called the minister's decision not legally binding, as the investigators had a protected whistleblower status and such a move hadn't been consulted with the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers beforehand.
        The Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers stated that the Interior Ministry should have consulted this approach before suspending the investigators. Minister Sutaj Estok insists that his decision is lawful.