Ján Kaľavský on the list of wanted persons. (source: Interior Ministry)
Ján Kaľavský, a former police officer and a key figure in Slovakia’s so-called “war in the police”, which erupted after the 2020 government change and the launch of anti-corruption investigations under then-prime minister Igor Matovič, has been found guilty of corruption and leaking sensitive information.
On Tuesday, March 4, an appellate court upheld Kaľavský’s conviction.
Presiding judge Pavol Farkaš, along with two other Supreme Court judges Dušan Krč-Šebera and Martina Zeleňaková, sentenced him to five years in prison and imposed a fine of €5,000. “The defendant committed criminal offences while serving as a high-ranking police official,” the presiding judge said. The court considered amendments to the Penal Code that reduced sentences for corruption and economic crimes. Initially, in July 2023, the Specialised Criminal Court had sentenced him to seven years, but this ruling was not final.
Should Kaľavský fail to pay the fine, he will serve an additional five months in prison.
Judge Farkaš stressed that the conviction was not based solely on the testimony of key witness and businessman Peter Petrov, stating, “The testimony is supported by further evidence.” The court dismissed Kaľavský’s claims of politically motivated prosecution, concluding that the evidence contradicted his defence.
Kaľavský, who worked as an operative for the now-dissolved National Crime Agency (NAKA) from around 2017, was absent from the public hearing, having opted for proceedings in his absence. He is currently in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he has applied for asylum. In the past, he has denied all allegations of corruption and leaking confidential police information.
Prosecutor Ladislav Masár from the General Prosecutor’s Office, one of the leading figures from the now-dissolved anti-corruption Special Prosecutor’s Office, had sought a nine-year prison term along with the €5,000 fine. Masár, who is no longer permitted to handle corruption cases, filed the indictment against Kaľavský in early 2022. Defence lawyer Eva Mišíková, on the other hand, requested the appellate court to overturn the first-instance ruling and return the case for a retrial. She raised concerns over procedural errors, particularly regarding the credibility of key witness Petrov, known as “Tiger”.
Home renovations in return for insider information
Kaľavský had allegedly leaked police operation details to Petrov, who was involved in economic crimes and had ties to organised crime. Among those tipped off by Kaľavský was former police officer Marián Kučerka, now a convicted criminal. Petrov reportedly provided Kaľavský with money for a Range Rover, a mobile phone, and even home renovations in exchange for inside information from NAKA about upcoming police raids.
Kaľavský was first charged with leaking information in May 2021, but within weeks, prosecutor Martina Cibuľová from the General Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the charges, deeming the evidence insufficient. Despite this, the same evidence later led to his conviction in 2023 and again on appeal. During this period, Kaľavský became an agent for the Interior Ministry’s police inspectorate, secretly recording conversations with NAKA investigators Ján Čurilla and Pavol Ďurko. However, his recordings failed to prove any manipulation of investigations by NAKA.
The recordings were later used by the police inspectorate, which investigates police misconduct, to charge Čurilla and his team, and have since been weaponised by politicians from the Smer party to attack NAKA investigators, often in edited and misleading formats.
Hiding in Bosnia
Meanwhile, Kaľavský’s status in Bosnia remains uncertain. Local authorities detained him in April 2022 but did not place him in custody, instead imposing restrictions such as confiscating his travel documents and requiring him to report to authorities regularly. These measures were later lifted. Slovak authorities will now determine whether he remains in the country, and if not, an international arrest warrant could follow. However, as noted by Slovak newspaper Denník N, Bosnia and Herzegovina rarely complies with extradition requests, and Kaľavský cannot be extradited before his asylum request is resolved.
Reports from Bosnian media in September 2023 suggested that Kaľavský was running an e-bike rental business in the country.
