Trenčianské Teplice
Mečiar loan came from Swiss businessman
WOULD you pay $7 million for Mečiar's Elektra?photo: TASR
FORMER PM Vladimír Mečiar has said that the over Sk41 million ($920,000) he allegedly borrowed to finance his controversial Elektra villa in the west Slovak town of Trenčianské Teplice came from Swiss businessman Peter Ziegel in 1999.
Ziegel confirmed the information for a journalist with the Sita news agency, offering his passport and part of the loan contract as proof.
Ziegler said he had lent Mečiar somewhere from Sk40-100 million, that the maturity was 10 years with payments to begin in 2005 at the latest. The loan was secured with Mečiar's property, Ziegler said, refusing to give the rate of interest.
However, some parts of Ziegler's claims appeared dubious, particularly his statement that the Elektra property was worth Sk300 million ($7 million), and that he had been given collateral rights over it. The local land registry office shows Mečiar as the sole owner, and that no collateral obligations have been recorded.
The daily paper Sme wrote that Ziegler was transported to Slovakia in a car owned by the Guard security firm, which used to provide security for former Mečiar intimate Alexander Rezeš.
The fraud division of the police corps is also investigating whether Mečiar reported to the central bank the several million Swiss francs Ziegler allegedly delivered to him in cash, as he is required to do by law.
Ziegler said he had agreed to vouch for Mečiar because the opposition leader is "persecuted in the pre-election struggle".
Bratislava
Negligence charges weighed against Schuster doctor
A POLICE investigator has called for charges of negligence to be laid against a doctor at the Interior Ministry Hospital in a near-fatal operation on President Rudolf Schuster in 2000. A state prosecutor will now decide further steps.
Bratislava
Martinka arrest warrant annulled
A THIRD warrant for the arrest of former privatiser Karol Martinka has been annulled by the Bratislava region court, prompting Martinka's lawyer to request the Justice Ministry withdraw a request for his extradition from Austria.
Martinka, who was active in failed Slovak-Russian financial house Devín Banka and was behind the scandalous privatisation of the Piešťany spa, in recent days has seen the spa case returned by the Supreme Court to police for further investigation.
Bratislava
Korean kicked out for arms trading
A SOUTH Korean citizen was expelled from Slovakia in early August under suspicion of illegal trading in arms, particularly in dual-use goods and material for weapons of mass destruction, the Sme paper writes.
Bratislava
Woman gives herself abortion
A HOSPITAL employee secretly gave herself an abortion using vivisection instruments she found in the pathology department.
The 33-year-old woman on September 4 managed to get rid of her unwanted fetus, but nearly bled to death after the operation. A colleague discovered her and rushed her into treatment.
It is not known in what month of pregnancy she was.
Bratislava
Rusko virus infecting nation
A COMPUTER virus called "Appeal", bearing the name and smiling photo of Pavol Rusko, head of the non-parliamentary New Citizen's Alliance Party (Ano) party, is spreading through e-mails and infecting computers around the country.
ProNetix, a computer security company, said they had registered the first such e-mails on September 10, just two weeks ahead of the nation's general elections, and had immediately produced an anti-virus programme.
Rusko said the virus, along with recent defacement of his party's billboards, was part of an "attempt by political rivals to discredit Ano".
Žilina
Helping the cops help us
ŽILINA's traffic police are looking for sponsors to help them buy new computers.
The region's traffic police officials say that half of their employees do not have computers, and that those machines they do have are outdated and frequently break down, slowing the office's work, particularly in the car registration department.
"It's unbearable. The computers freeze every minute, the printers don't work. Our officers are now the targets of offences and attacks by impatient citizens," said Branislav Zajac, head of the traffic police.
