Smer MP with pro-Russian views Ľuboš Blaha. (source: TASR)
Bratislava IV City Court has rejected a lawsuit brought by security software company Eset against a prominent member of the ruling Smer party who claimed the firm was linked to the CIA, reports news website Aktuality.sk.
Eset spokesperson Peter Blažečka confirmed the court decision's decision, which came five years after the firm had brought legal action against Ľuboš Blaha, who at the time was an MP in parliament. He is currently one of four deputy speakers of parliament. Blaha also runs in this year's European Parliament elections.
The Slovak software company, which said it will appeal the decision, submitted a lawsuit against Blaha in 2019. "[The lawsuit] relates to his untrue and unfounded statements about Eset during the past few months," the company wrote in a statement at the time, adding that its action was a standard procedure to protect its reputation.
Blaha had criticised the company on his Facebook page and called its owners oligarchs who "own the media and pay several politicians". He also made a series of discrediting videos and claimed, among other things, that Eset was linked to US intelligence services.
In 2022, Facebook cancelled his page for violating the platform's rules.
Following the court ruling, in a video posted to Telegram Blaha said that the decision was "good news for freedom of speech and bad news for all the oligarchs who cannot take legitimate criticism and instead attack left-wing politicians".
In March 2022, Blaha was ordered by the Bratislava I District Court to stop spreading claims that President Zuzana Čaputová is a traitor, an agent of foreign countries and a puppet of the United States.
He was also ordered to remove these claims from dozens of his posts on his social media pages.
