Late on Monday night, November 8, prominent lawyer Ernest Valko was killed, Police President Jaroslav Spišiak confirmed to the Sme daily. Valko, who was currently working for the state, was shot dead in his house in Limbach, near Bratislava. The police have not released any further information.
Most recently Valko's name appeared during the case involving the lottery company Tipos where he was representing the company. There is the possibility that the state could lose €66 million.
Valko was close to the current ruling coalition, especially the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) and had represented the Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš in his long-running court case with Smer leader Robert Fico, according to the SITA newswire. Last week Valko was appointed to the Supervisory Board of the gas utility SPP.
Valko had also served as the president of the federal Czechoslovak Constitutional Court in 1992. Among others, he represented the state in the case of the so-called Ducký's bills of exchange. A former director of the state-run gas utility SPP, Ján Ducký, allegedly signed a minimum of 24 controversial promissory notes and owners of these notes had allegedly extorted billions of crowns from the state. Ducký was murdered on January 11, 1999. The circumstances surrounding his murder have never been fully clarified.
Source: Sme, SITA