President: Public Disputes Undermine Trust in Entire Prosecutor's Office

Bratislava, August 30 (TASR) – The ongoing public fracas between Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka and Special Prosecutor Daniel Lipsic is undermining public confidence in the prosecutor’s office as a whole, President Zuzana Caputova declared after her meeting with Zilinka on Monday.

“The President invited Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka to a working meeting last week over the visible tension apparent between the Prosecutor-General and the Special Prosecutor,” TASR was told by President’s spokesperson Martin Strizinec.

According to the President, it is mostly the Prosecutor-General as the top prosecutor who is responsible for the overall image and trust the institution inspires.

Zilinka reported the meeting with the head of state on his social network as well. “We had a very open and very serious talk,” posted Zilinka. He cited the quote of Albert Einstein, according to which “what is right is not always popular. And what is popular is not always right”.

On August 13, Prosecutor-General Zilinka filed a motion to launch disciplinary proceedings against Lipsic. Zilinka holds that Lipsic committed a disciplinary offence by making “public, speculative and misleading” comments, without any knowledge of the file, on a criminal case not assigned to the Special Prosecutor’s Office.

Lipsic fired back by saying that he made the comments at the time when untrue information were repeatedly circulated in the media on the alleged “manipulation” of investigations into high-profile corruption cases, even by public functionaries. Lipsic considered it his duty to stand by investigators and prosecutors working on the criminal cases assigned to the Special Prosecutor’s Office.