Malinová case might go to court

THE CASE of Hedviga Malinová, a Hungarian-speaking student who was allegedly beaten in Nitra in August 2006 after she was overheard speaking Hungarian, could go to court. According to her lawyer Roman Kvasnica, who has read the results of the investigation, the General Prosecutor’s Office is ready to submit a lawsuit, the Sme daily reported in its January 24 issue.

THE CASE of Hedviga Malinová, a Hungarian-speaking student who was allegedly beaten in Nitra in August 2006 after she was overheard speaking Hungarian, could go to court. According to her lawyer Roman Kvasnica, who has read the results of the investigation, the General Prosecutor’s Office is ready to submit a lawsuit, the Sme daily reported in its January 24 issue.

If the court finds her guilty of perjury and making false claims, an accusation she has been facing since 2007, she could spend five years in prison.

The General Prosecutor’s Office has yet to confirm this information, the SITA newswire wrote.

“The prosecutor indirectly told us that the case will proceed to the court,” Kvasnica told Sme.

He added that he does not think that evidence is crucial in this case, but that it is rather “the political events that happen in Slovakia; therefore it takes so long”. Kvasnica however did not want to make any connection between the case and the upcoming presidential elections, Sme wrote.

In August 2006 Malinová (who has since married and now goes by the surname Žáková) reported that she had been assaulted on her way to a university exam in Nitra. The police’s findings were released in September 2006, at a press conference by then interior minister Robert Kaliňák and then prime minister Robert Fico (both of whom currently hold the same positions), with Kaliňák stating “it is beyond doubt that the case did not happen”. He presented several pieces of evidence that he said backed his claim, including DNA samples. Kaliňák later went on to denounce Malinová as a “pathological liar”. Malinová was charged in May 2007 with perjury and making false claims.

The lawyers have been asking for the investigation to be completed, which is to include the testimony of Fico and Education Minister Dušan Čaplovič, who told the Týždeň weekly in 2007 that Malinová could have been beaten, but not because she is Hungarian.

Kvasnica also asked for the prosecutor to explain to Malinová, who in late 2013 moved to Hungary after receiving Hungarian citizenship, the possibilities of translating some of the materials connected to the criminal prosecution. He also proposed to hear the orthopaedist whose recent expert opinion on Malinová’s health “suddenly replaced [that of] the medical school of the Comenius University in Bratislava”, as reported by Sme.

Kvasnica also said that a transcript of a video recording of his client speaking to the police differs from what is on the video. He believes the prosecution has been violating Malinová’s “right of defence”, Sme wrote.

Source: Sme, SITA

To read more about this story please see: Malinová case nears end

Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports

The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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