ECHR: Slovakia Will Have to Pay €9,750 to Hascak over Gorilla Wiretapping

ECHR: Slovakia Will Have to Pay €9,750 to Hascak over Gorilla Wiretapping

Bratislava, June 23 (TASR) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday ruled that Slovakia will have to pay €9,750 to financier Jaroslav Hascak following his complaint over the Gorilla wiretapping, stating that his right to privacy was violated, TASR learnt from Justice Ministry spokesman Peter Bubla.

However, the court turned down allegations of violations of the right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence.

“In its judgement, the ECHR referred to a large extent to its conclusions in the ‘Zoltan Varga v. the Slovak Republic of July 20, 2021’ judgement which, in its view, appropriately apply also to the complainant’s objections in this case,” said Bubla. In the past, the ECHR ruled in favour of Slovak ex-police officer Zoltan Varga, who sued the state over the wiretapping of his Bratislava apartment by the Slovak Information Service (SIS) as part of Operation Gorilla.

According to the ECHR, Hascak’s complaints concerned the Gorilla case, not the charges pressed against him in 2020.