For A Decent Slovakia march on June 22, 2018, in Bratislava. (source: TASR)
Ethics watchdog Fair-Play Alliance has submitted a criminal complaint over the recent statements of ex-prime minister Robert Fico in an interview with the Czech weekly Echo24.
In the interview, Fico for example said that they already know that the organisers of the For a Decent Slovakia gatherings held after the murder of Ján Kuciak came from organisations funded by George Soros, and that “we know well who met with whom, and what role they were playing at that time”. He also indirectly suggested that the state could have been monitoring the organisers.
Fair-Play Alliance based its complaint on the fact that Fico was not lying and really knew certain information about the organisers of the gatherings.
“Somebody had to gather this information (or receive it),” the watchdog wrote on Facebook on November 14.
Legal or illegal activity?
If the information was gathered by state institutions, they should have done it either legally or illegally. In the former case, the information should have been classified and their disclosure, including the fact that the gathering actually took place, could be classified as a crime.
In the latter case, powers could have been abused, Fair-Play Alliance continued.
“Of course, not the state but somebody else could receive the information,” the watchdog wrote on Facebook. “But in this case it was certainly illegal and it needs to be investigated.”
To increase the chance that the police will deal with the case, they submitted a non-anonymous complaint, addressed directly to Peter Hraško, head of the National Criminal Agency (NAKA). With this step, they responded to the fact that NAKA has invited several members of the For a Decent Slovakia initiative for hearings based on an anonymous criminal complaint, suggesting that they were involved in organising a state coup and financed by Soros.
NAKA cancels further hearings
Meanwhile, the representatives of For a Decent Slovakia stated on Facebook that NAKA cancelled the hearings planned for November 15. So far, Juraj Šeliga, Karolína Farská, Katarína Nagy Pazmány, Táňa Sedláková and Veronika Bruncková have been called in by the police.
“We were informed today in the afternoon that the matter was passed on based on the prosecutor’s decision,” they wrote.
However, the initiative has no further information about the next steps of NAKA or the prosecutor’s office. Neither do they know whether the hearings will continue.
“We believe that this unfounded criminal complaint will be dismissed,” the initiative wrote.
