Fico Won't Comment Monika J.'s Testimony, Praises Work at Ministry

Bratislava, November 26 (TASR) – Smer-SD chair Robert Fico said on Thursday that he won’t comment on a testimony given by Smer-SD’s former Justice Ministry state secretary Monika J. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons], who is being prosecuted in custody for corruption and allegedly mentioned Fico in her statements to an investigator.

Fico reiterated that Monika J. did a good job as state secretary. “What Monika J. was supposed to do as state secretary, she did well,” he claimed, adding that detainment is starting to be misused by the police as “an instrument of torture”.

The Smer-SD chair said that he consulted the issue of representing the state in major legal cases with Monika J. in the past, but he claimed that he knew nothing of her private activities. According to him, Smer-SD has had nothing to do with the case of counterfeit TV Markiza promissory notes, and he rejected any notion that he pulled strings in an attempt to secure the release of defendant Marian K. from custody. Fico called the entrepreneur a “big showboat” who liked to brag but “never really got anything done”.

Fico was asked whether he was the boss to Norbert Bodor, an oligarch suspected of controlling the police during Fico’s governments, as alluded to by Marian K. in his Threema chats. He replied “of course”, but added that everyone calls him “the boss”. He didn’t deny that Norbert Bodor paid visits to Smer-SD headquarters, as Monika J. testified recently.

On Wednesday (November 25), Monika J. confessed criminal activities to a NAKA investigator as part of an extensive testimony. She made detailed statements regarding defendants in other cases, including Marian K.