Police have arrested the rector of a university-level academic institution for the first time in the history of independent Slovakia. Václav Krajník, the rector of the Police Academy in Bratislava, is accused of falsifying applicants' interviews, the Sme daily reported on June 30.
As well as Krajník, police also arrested three other officials at the academy: deputy rector for project management and informatisation Tomáš Fazekaš, bursar Igor Schnorrer, and one member of the teaching staff.
The men were detained based on the findings of an investigation by the police's Office for the Fight Against Corruption, which raided the academy on June 27. During checks into suspicions of fraud in the use of EU structural funds, police officers found tests used to assess applicants to the academy that had been marked with correct answers, and which they allege were intended to be substituted for the actual versions produced during interviews.
Sme reported that Fazekaš was released by the police without being charged; Krajník as well as the other two accused men reportedly confessed their guilt during the hearing and have also been released.
The daily also wrote that Schnorrer, who is also a member of the opposition Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) and the chair of its local branch in Dunajská Lužná, will probably lose his party membership. The proposal for his suspension will be submitted by current chair of the Bratislava regional branch of the SDKÚ, former justice minister Lucia Žitňanská.
“We will decide on other steps when we have more information about the case,” said Žitňanská, as quoted by Sme.
Source: Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
