Seven months after details of a wiretapping operation known as Gorilla emerged on the internet detailing alleged corruption in Slovak political and business circles in 2005-6, a book on corruption in the country written by investigative journalist Tom Nicholson appeared in bookstores on July 23, the TASR newswire reported.
The book was the subject of a court suit seeking prevention of its publication initiated by the co-owner of the Penta financial group, Jaroslav Haščák, who is featured in the wiretapping transcripts that were based on monitoring of a Bratislava flat by Slovakia’s intelligence service, the SIS.
"The publishing of the Gorilla files represented a detonator for public debate on how the state is governed and whether at least the minimum level of decency in public life is observed," states Alexej Fulmek, the general director of the Petit Press publishing house (publisher of the daily Sme and partial owner of The Slovak Spectator), in the preface to the book.
The Bratislava I District Court originally suspended publication of the book but that decision was overruled by the appellate court in June.
Booksellers told the TASR newswire that the book entitled simply 'Gorila' will become a bestseller after it was in the shops on Monday. Nicholson is a former editor-in-chief of The Slovak Spectator.
Source: 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.
