Former PM Vladimír Mečiar. (source: SME archive)
In 2024, almost 30 years since the kidnapping of the son of then-president Michal Kováč, and seven years after the cancellation of the amnesties pertinent to acting president Vladimír Mečiar, Slovakia may expect the opening of the trial in the August 1995 case.
This is one of the biggest unsolved criminal cases in the history of the country. According to the results of the investigation, the Slovak Information Service (SIS) under the leadership of Ivan Lexa, one of Slovakia’s secret services, participated in the crime.
Even though the police clarified the case after the end of the Mečiar era in 1998, the courts refused to deal with it. They referred to Mečiar’s controversial amnesties.
The topic of presidential amnesties and individual pardons is relevant before the upcoming presidential elections for one particular reason: unlike the situation in 1998, the president can today decide on amnesties only after a case has been closed by the court.
