On Tuesday, March 16, a panel of judges at the Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok acquitted former Bratislava-Rača district mayor and one-time Christian Democrat (KDH) senior official Pavol Bielik and his co-accused, businessman Jaroslav Šuščák, of corruption charges. The court said that it had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt that the deed for which they were prosecuted really took place as the prosecution claimed, the SITA newswire wrote.
The prosecution had alleged that in January 2004, Šuščák asked for Sk5 million (approximately €165,000 at 2010 rates) from Pavol Kollár, a representative of the company Invest In, in exchange for the local council's blessing to reconstruct one building and construct two new buildings in the Bratislava-Rača district. Kollár told the court that Šuščák had continually exerted pressure on him to pay the Sk5 million bribe to the mayor, or his investment plan in Rača would not be approved. For more information, see The root of the problem. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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