Vladimír Pčolinský being taken into custody. (source: SME)
It was not about the ongoing investigation of criminal cases, say Slovakia's top constitutional officials. A group of the most powerful people in the state secretly met in the headquarters of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) at a time when the leadership of the National Criminal Agency and the SIS were falling apart following a series of arrests that also landed several oligarchs and judges in custody.
The meeting took place in a special room that cannot be intercepted. It was convened by PM Eduard Heger (OĽaNO).
The participants included, according to the Denník N daily, which first broke the story last week, the new SIS director Michal Aláč (Sme Rodina nominee), President Zuzana Čaputová, Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár (Sme Rodina), Justice Minister Mária Kolíková (Za Ľudí), Interior Minister Roman Mikulec (OĽaNO), General Prosecutor Maroš Žilinka, Special Prosecutor Daniel Lipšic, Police Corps President Peter Kovařík, and head of the Interior Ministry's inspectorate Adrián Szabó.
Ján Mojžiš, former head of the SIS department of analytics and former head of the National Security Bureau (NBÚ), says he does not recall such meetings as taking place in his time. He considers it rare even in global comparison.
"A serious situation must be at stake. I can imagine that such meetings may be taking place in Israel, where they are dealing with very basic security questions," Mojžiš said.
Czech security analyst Andor Šándor, former head of the Czech military intelligence, confirmed the meeting as it was described is a rare event. The list of attendees suggests to him that the meeting was about a serious systemic problem in the police or in the SIS, even though the participants are keeping quiet about it in public.
"It is logical that the constitutional officials have not confirmed the information. It is the case of a lie that is not taken seriously," Šándor says.
