The head of Slovakia’s Border and Foreigners Police, Tibor Mako, resigned from his post, Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák said at a press conference on January 7, as reported by the TASR newswire.
“Tibor Mako asked to be released from his post and I've accepted,” said Kaliňák.
An RDX explosive planted by Slovak police was inadvertently carried on an aeroplane from Poprad-Tatry airport to Dublin. According to Kaliňák, the entire incident was caused by a 'stupid human mistake', as he said the police officer responsible made a number of blunders. The investigation of the case conducted by the Interior Ministry inspection is pending. Kaliňák also decided to stop any further similar security tests and intends to find an alternative training procedure.
Kaliňák refused to step down over the international uproar and he has not been called on to resign by Prime Minister Robert Fico.
“The deployment of dogs to find explosives represents a tactic widely used at many airports since time immemorial. A similar incident also took place at an airport in France. Slovakia has employed the use of dogs at least since 1989,” Kaliňák said in defending the police dog-handlers, as quoted by TASR.
According to the Border and Foreigners Police, the police officer on duty forgot to retrieve the explosive after it was found by a sniffer-dog. Another mistake was not reporting the blunder to his superiors at once; thereby, the authorities learned about the incident after a two-day delay. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
8. Jan 2010 at 10:00
