Jozef Čentéš, who was elected by parliament as the General Prosecutor but not appointed to the post by President Ivan Gašparovič at this point in time, made additional comments regarding the shredding of a document that recorded information given by independent MP Igor Matovič, the TASR newswire reported.
"I won't comment on opinions of politicians, as they might not have relevant information," Čentéš told TASR on August 2 in reaction to the shredding of a statement provided to the General Prosecutor's Office by independent MP Igor Matovič.
"I have no interest in or any intention to hide anything or shred it away. This was a human error, about which I already informed my superior as well as the Prosecutor Office's press department. Despite our efforts, the recording of the first statement could not be restored, with the MP having to be questioned one more time on Friday. However, he didn't say anything different during the Friday's afternoon session," Čentéš stated.
Matovič stated that he does not think that someone wanted to manipulate his testimony on political corruption or that the document was intentionally shredded. "It was a human error," he said, as quoted by the SITA newswire. Matovič said after Čentéš had questioned him on Friday Čentéš ordered a secretary to print a transcript of the testimony and delete it from the computer in order to prevent its possible leak.
Čentéš the later called Matovič to return and testify again as his the printed document was reportedly shredded by mistake. The General Prosecutor’s Office, however, stated on August 1 that Matovič was lying when he said that Čentéš' secretary had accidentally shredded the printed version of his first three-hour testimony. The office said that after verifying the first testimony, no administrative employee had handled the printed version.
Source: TASR, SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
