Ján Slota, illustrative stock photo (source: TASR)
This case started with an accident in January 2016 when Ján Slota, ex-mayor of Žilina and former chairman of SNS, crashed his Porsche into two cars and refused an on site breathalyser test. Another person involved in the accident claimed Slota left his car and offered him money if he did not call the police and reached an agreement with him, the aktuality.sk website wrote. After the accident, Slota was hospitalised at the Teaching Hospital’s emergency reception in Žilina where he spent three hours, accompanied by police – the reason being an alleged heart attack .
As Slota refused to take the breathalyser or to give blood for testing, he was considered to be a drunk-driver and sentenced to a €6,000 fine, a six months conditional sentence (postponed for one year) and a driving ban for six years. However, the prosecutor could not accept this and lodged an appeal for a stricter sentence. This succeeded and the case went to trial, aktuality.sk wrote.
As for the charge of offering a bribe, the Specialised Criminal Court studied the case for several months and on may 4, it issued its verdict, according to the cas.sk website. The court replaced the first verdict of the Žilina Regional Court concerning the drunk-driving charge, and merged them into a single one, with a stricter sentence.
"A judge from the Specialised Criminal Court issued a criminal order on April 21, 2017 in the case of a misdemeanour of bribery,” spokesperson of the Court, Katarína Kudjáková, told cas.sk. “It found the defendant guilty and gave him a summary prison sentence of one year, with a conditional reprieve of two years,” she said.
The verdict is not yet in effect, as Slota still has the right of appeal; if he does so, a main session will be ordered and a new verdict reached.
