NAKA Detains Several Judges Linked to Threema Communications

Bratislava, March 11 (TASR) – Police officers from the National Crime Agency (NAKA) operating under the ‘Fog’ investigation team arrested a number of judges on Wednesday morning, the police have reported on a social network.

The Fog team swooped on judges mentioned in Marian K.’s communications via the encrypted Threema app. Those arrested have been taken to the NAKA office in Nitra.
Marian K. is an entrepreneur who faces charges of ordering the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak.

According to information published by SME daily and tvnoviny.sk website, those detained included judges Monika J., Andrea H., Miriam R., Zuzana M. and Supreme Court Vice-chair Jarmila U. Meanwhile, tvnoviny.sk reported that Bratislava I District Court former judge Vladimir S. isn’t among the detained. He’s reported to have been cooperating with the police. Vladimir S. exchanged thousands of messages via Threema with Marian K.

“We won’t comment on this at the moment with regards to the ongoing criminal proceedings,” Special Prosecutor’s Office (USP) spokeswoman Jana Tokolyova has told TASR. No information on the detained judges from Bratislava District and Regional Courts are available to Bratislava Regional Court at the moment.

Monika J. is former state secretary of the Justice Ministry for Smer-SD and a judge of Bratislava Regional Court who had been suspended. She exchanged thousands of messages with Marian K. via Threema. Their communications concerned a large number of cases, including the TV Markiza promissory notes, for which Marian K. was recently convicted and sentenced to 19 years in prison. The communications indicated that Marian K. was influencing judges various judges via Monika J.

The police carried out searches of the houses of several above-mentioned judges last summer. Their mobile phones were seized at that time as well.