Police: Tibor G. Detained on Suspicion of Corruption
Bratislava, August 11 (TASR) - Former police chief Tibor G. (name abbreviated due to legal reasons) has been detained on suspicion of corruption, according to a statement provided to TASR by the Police Corps Presidium on Friday.
The police explained that Tibor G. was detained along with one other individual under Operation Ezekiel 7 in Nitra region.
Given the ongoing investigation, both the police and Special Prosecutor's Office refused to provide more information for the time being.
Premier Ludovit Odor has denied that he or the government are kept informed about active criminal cases, adding that he considers the independence of law enforcement to be a basic prerequisite for a healthy society.
The premier at the same time noted that the police should clearly publicly communicate the circumstances of a case within the limits of what they can say. According to him, this is important in particular in cases that are very sensitive and socially explosive.
To say that the prime minister or the government is in any way informed beyond public knowledge or involved in active cases is a lie, stressed Odor.
Charges against former police chief Tibor G. were pressed immediately at the point when the investigator had no doubts based on the evidence, the police posted on a social network on Friday, confirming that they have accused a total of three people in the case.
"The resolution on bringing charges was issued without delay when the investigator, based on the evidence obtained and its evaluation, decided without reasonable doubt that the acts were committed by specific people," said the police.
If I had wanted to help Smer increase its support, I wouldn't have done it any other way, said Parliamentary Chair and 'We Are Family' leader Boris Kollar on Friday, commenting on the arrest of former police chief and candidate on the Smer-SD slate Tibor G., adding that he's only received information about the case from the media.
"I won't comment on the work of the police. If they can deal with the burden of proof, the men in question will bear responsibility. If they don't, it will be another fiasco, an 'embarrassment' and shame for the police," said the parliamentary chair.
Kollar doesn't want one organised group that hijacked the state and decided who had the right to the truth to be replaced by a new one that does the same. "I can see that not all procedures are followed and that not all procedures are legal in Slovakia," he stated.
The detention of ex-police chief Tibor G. is unprecedented interference in the election campaign, said the Slovak National Party (SNS) on Friday, calling on President Zuzana Caputova to take steps to make Ludovit Odor's Cabinet "a government of experts and not of Progressive Slovakia".
"Never in Slovakia's history has it happened that a person from the top positions on a slate has been arrested in a demonstrative manner," said SNS in a statement sent to TASR by head of the SNS chairman's office Zuzana Skopcova. According to the party, it's clear that the course of the parliamentary election is being disrupted by police activities.
