Lexa directed the abduction. A full statement by Ľuboš Kosík from Africa

Former SIS member Kosík confirmed for the Sme daily in December that he was a member of the commando that kidnapped the president’s son.

Ľuboš Kosík (right) and Ivan Lexa. Ľuboš Kosík (right) and Ivan Lexa. (Source: Sme archive)

Former SIS member Ľuboš Kosík made this statement in the African country of Mali, where he is reportedly incarcerated.

In the statement, published by the Sme daily on January 10, he confirmed the role of former SIS director Ivan Lexa in the abduction and other criminal activities the Mečiar-era secret service has been suspected of.

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The Malian police detained Kosík in November 2016 based on an international warrant. He fled Slovakia after the court sentenced him to 14 years in prison in the case of falsifying promissory notes for his former business partner Lubomir Farenzena.

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Slovakia requested the extradition of Kosík from Mali, but the authorities have not reacted yet.

Here is the full text from the statement:

My statement will be about SIS activities, for which I worked under then director Ivan Lexa.

I am aware of all the legal consequences. I am not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Nobody has forced me to do anything.

First, I want to respond to the claims of former SIS member Michal Hrbáček about the abduction of Michal Kováč, Jr. that were published in the Nový Čas daily in the past. He said that the activities of every secret service in the world are directed by its director. I agree with that. At the time of my work for SIS from 1995 – 1998 the director was Ivan Lexa.

Read also: Planned murder of a witness. The little known secret service scandal Read more 

He was thus aware of all the steps and methods of SIS members.

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The deputy director of SIS was Jaroslav Svěchota, through whom Lexa conveyed orders to his subordinates (Svěchota died in 2004, ed. note). As undercover agents we were not directly employed at SIS, so we could only have received orders from the director, since we were unknown to other SIS members. Undercover agents could thus only receive assignments from Svěchota based on Lexa’s orders.

Michal Hrbáček received a direct order from Lexa to put together a group with high morals who would be able to perform any activities for SIS. Hrbáček did put together such a group.

Read also: Ex intelligence employee: Lexa oversaw the 1995 abduction Read more 

Today I am in the position of being accused of abducting the president’s son. So I want to make a public statement on the matter, and I also want to testify in front of a judge. As a defendant, I have the legal right to defend myself “by any means”, while the law does not specify what “by any means” signifies.

I have interpreted it so that I left my homeland and I decided to testify about criminal activities against my former superiors, Michal Hrbáček and Ivan Lexa.

They are people in a high position in society. My departure from Slovakia was also necessary because they wanted to eliminate me, and not just physically. Their aim was to close me up in a prison and silence me that way, preventing me from speaking up about their criminal activities.

My sentence in the case of promissory notes contains many procedural errors. My attorney will thus turn to the Constitutional Court and I will await the ruling.

I want to say that as a citizen I am legally obliged to testify about criminal activities, particularly when grave crimes are concerned, like the preparation of a murder, a murder itself, or crimes against the state.

Read also: Mečiar's amnesties? Slovak youth don't know what they are Read more 

The truth is that Michal Hrbáček received orders from Jaroslav Svěchota by phone and everything was directed by Ivan Lexa. He knew about every step of the SIS members during the abduction. As I said before, nothing was allowed without knowledge of the SIS director.

If I said in the interview with the Sme daily last December that the orders came from Jaroslav Svěchota and I never received any order directly from Ivan Lexa, I stand by that claim.

I received no direct orders from Lexa. The operative activities were performed on-site by operatives. Svěchota was in the vicinity, to oversee the entire assignment from another car. SIS director Lexa issued orders from his office.

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