6. August 2018 at 17:14

Abduction: President says he does not trust the interior minister

General Prosecutor and former prime minister Fico accuse Kiska of abusing the case for politics.

Michaela Terenzani

Editorial

General Prosecutor Jaromír Čižnár (r) General Prosecutor Jaromír Čižnár (r) (source: SME)
Font size: A - | A +

Amid the dog days of August, the Slovak political scene was set in hectic motion following a story by the Denník N daily that voices numerous allegations of Slovak involvement in the abduction of Vietnamese citizen Trinh Xuan Thanh in Germany.

SkryťTurn off ads
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

Denník N described, based on the report of German investigators and testimonies of Slovak police officers who say they witnessed the abduction, how the official visit of a Vietnamese delegation was used to transport the kidnapped Thanh from Bratislava to Moscow and then Vietnam.

President Andrej Kiska, PM Peter Pellegrini, Parliament’s Speaker Andrej Danko, and General Prosecutor Jaroslav Čižnár met on Monday to discuss the matter. Following their meeting, both Čižnár and the head of the ruling Smer, Robert Fico, accused Kiska of abusing the case for politics.

SkryťTurn off ads
Abduction: Kaliňák says he is ready to take a polygraph test
Read also:
Abduction: Kaliňák says he is ready to take a polygraph test

High interior ministry official suspended

First, PM Peter Pellegrini met President Andrej Kiska and following the meeting announced that Interior Minister Denisa Saková suspended the head of the Office for the Protection of Constitutional Officials, Peter Krajčírovič, from his post in order to remove any potential obstacles for the proper investigation of the abduction case and its Slovak circumstances.

Police officers who work under Krajčírovič described in their testimonies, as reported by the Denník N daily last week, how Trinh Xuan Thanh was transferred from a van that brought him from Berlin, where he was abducted, to the Slovak government plane in Bratislava that flew him out of the Schengen zone to Moscow.

“It is important for me that nobody will be able to question all the steps that will be taken regarding this issue or say that they have not been taken properly,” Pellegrini told journalists following the meeting with Kiska.

SkryťTurn off ads

The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.sk
Subscribe now for full access

I already have subscription -  Sign in

Subscription provides you with:

  • Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk

  • Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail)

  • PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper, The Slovak Spectator, emailed directly to you

  • Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk

SkryťClose ad