PG Zilinka Decided Not to Appoint Kysel as Deputy Special Prosecutor

Bratislava, August 9 (TASR) – Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka has decided not to appoint Peter Kysel as Deputy Special Prosecutor, spokesman for the Prosecutor-General’s Office Dalibor Skladan told TASR on Monday.

“According to the prosecutor general, the Supreme Court found errors by the prosecutor of such a nature that are incompatible with the performance of the post of a top prosecutor,” said Skladan, adding that in his decision-making, the prosecutor general considered the fulfilment of the conditions for the appointment of Kysel to the position of a top prosecutor comprehensively.

“Therefore, he couldn’t disregard the decisions of the Supreme Court of April and May 2021, in which it stated a violation of the prosecutor’s legal obligation to handle custody matters preferentially and expeditiously and a flagrant violation of his procedure and deadlines in submitting applications of the accused for release from custody, and thus a serious interference with their rights,” added Skladan.

At the same time, Zilinka took note of the opinion of 23 prosecutors of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, in which they allegedly asked him to reconsider the decision. “However, the facts stated in it are not of such a nature that they can change his decision not to appoint Peter Kysel to the post of deputy special prosecutor,” said the spokesman.

Zilinka submitted two disciplinary motions against Kysel. The first, in May 2021, concerns the case of ex-director of the Special Police Operations Department Jozef R. (name abbreviated due to legal reasons). Kysel processed in the case the defendant’s application for release from custody for a period of almost two months. Dennik N reported that the second disciplinary proposal concerns delays in proceedings in the case of former director of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) Vladimir P.