Former journalist Teleki sues state

EX-JOURNALIST Jana Teleki has sued Slovakia for being exposed to a 16-year long criminal prosecution, demanding reimbursement of €500,000.

EX-JOURNALIST Jana Teleki has sued Slovakia for being exposed to a 16-year long criminal prosecution, demanding reimbursement of €500,000.

“She was repeatedly criminally prosecuted despite that she had not committed any punishable action,” Teleki’s lawyer David Zahumenský told the TASR newswire.

The lawyer added that the criminal prosecution of his client not only was illegal, but was also very long. As a result, Teleki was exposed to mental pressure and it was more difficult for her to do her journalistic work properly, TASR wrote. According to Zahumenský, Teleki is not being prosecuted at the moment.

The prosecution of Teleki started in 1998 for publishing a satiric poem and other articles about the then-mayor of Považská Bystrica, a member of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), in her newspaper. In 1999 Teleki was charged with committing the crime of attacking a public official and with libel, TASR wrote.

In June 2014, the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Bratislava stopped another criminal procedure for what she said on TV Markíza private broadcaster in 2008 and 2009 where she discussed her repeated prosecutions. The prosecutor launched a criminal suit for her claims that she was twice punished for the same act, Teleki told to Sme daily in October 2013.

The Prosecutor Office later decided that her acts were not criminal. Since five years have passed from her appearances in TV Markíza, it is not possible to deal with the question whether her actions should be qualified as an offence or not, Sme reported on June 20.

Teleki was hiding in the Czech Republic and refused to come back to Slovakia out of fear of her personal security, Sme reported. She criticised the approach of investigator Ján Kovarčík who handcuffed her to a radiator in the Nitra police station in September 2013. Teleki told Sme that she has heart problems, immobile ankles and suffers from osteoarthritis of the hip joint and therefore was unable to run from police.

Then the investigator conducted a personal search and transported her to a psychologist despite not having a warrant, according to Teleki who records all her actions on a mobile phone.

Teleki’s husband Gabriel Teleki told Sme in the past that state authorities want to bully her to bring about her psychological collapse which could help them to hide repeated abuse of their powers. He added that his wife suffered for 16 years “such massive violation of human rights that someone has to already deal with it”.

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