Criminal prosecution stopped in one Gorilla file case

Slovak police have closed a case from the infamous Gorilla file over the suspicion that former Transport Minister Pavol Prokopovič of the (now opposition) Slovak Democratic and Christian Union-SDKÚ faced unlawful political pressure during the privatisation of the M.R. Štefánik airport in Bratislava, in attempt to guarantee the financial group Penta won the bid.

Slovak police have closed a case from the infamous Gorilla file over the suspicion that former Transport Minister Pavol Prokopovič of the (now opposition) Slovak Democratic and Christian Union-SDKÚ faced unlawful political pressure during the privatisation of the M.R. Štefánik airport in Bratislava, in attempt to guarantee the financial group Penta won the bid.

Head of the police team investigating the Gorilla case, Marek Gajdoš, told the Hospodárske Noviny daily that the incdent did not happen. The National Criminal Agency launched investigation of the airport privatisation at beginning this year. “On September 24, 2013, investigator decided to stop the criminal prosecution according to the Criminal Order, as the deed for which the criminal prosecution has been led undoubtedly did not happen,” Gajdoš told the daily. “This concerned the blackmail of a government member in connection with the privatisation of Bratislava airport.”

The Gorilla file, which came to the public's attention nearly a year and a half ago, was the code name for a clandestine wiretapping operation that points to cronyism and corruption at the highest level of Slovak politics. The wiretap transcripts were leaked to Canadian investigative journalist Tom Nicholson, former chief editor of The Slovak Spectator.

The Gorilla file that has been published online mentions one of the financial groups, eager to privatise Bratislava airport, exerting pressure on Prokopovič. He has ever since refused any notion of pressure and pointed to the fact that the privatisation was never actually completed. During the second tenure of Dzurinda government, the consortium Two One bid for the Bratislava airport, part of which was also the Penta financial group, and the Abertis with the participation of the J & T financial group. The authenticity of the Gorilla file has been not confirmed.

(Source: Hospodárske noviny)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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