FORMER Head of the secret service, Ivan Lexa, who led the Slovak intelligence service SIS between 1995 and 1998, was acquitted of charges of fictitious liquidation of weapons by the Bratislava III district court on September 14, SME daily reported.
The court also acquitted another four SIS members and sentenced three others to conditional penalties and fines.
The verdict is the first in a series of court cases against Lexa, who said he felt as an "underdog" of the Slovak state authorities. To avoid court charges Lexa even fled the country and was later arrested in South Africa and flown back to Slovakia.
The Interior Ministry reacted to the verdict by noting that it was "strange" that the state attorney, representing authorities that filed the charges against Lexa, doubted the charges in his final speech to the court.
Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports
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