Former chair of the Slovak National Party (SNS) Ján Slota. (source: Sme)
The Žilina district court imposed a financial penalty of €6,000, with an alternative of imprisonment for six months, and a ban from driving for six years on former chair of the Slovak National Party (SNS) Ján Slota on November 10, the TASR newswire reported.
Though the prosecutor’s office agrees with the court’s decision on his guilt, it has appealed against the punishment which is, according to the prosecutor, insufficient.
“The previous sentence of the accused did not serve its purpose because he again committed the same unlawful act,” said Milan Cisarik, spokesman of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Žilina, as quoted by TASR.
The court accused Slota of the offence of driving under the influence of alcohol when he crashed his Porsche Cayenne into an Audi A6 which immediately struck the next Suzuki SX4 on the first-class road from Lietavská Lúčka to Porúbka (both Žilina Region) on January 18.
“After the incident, the driver of Audi underwent treatment and others did not suffer injuries,” said Radko Moravčík, spokesman of the regional police headquarters, as cited by TASR, adding that they did not detect alcohol on the breath of the Audi and Suzuki drivers.
Slota refused to take breath, blood and other biological material tests on alcohol after the incident. Later, policemen detained his driver’s licence, Moravčík added.
While a judge of the Žilina district court released Slota on January 20, six days later the regional court did not see legal grounds for his arrest and dismissed the prosecutor‘s complaints, TASR reported.
In the past, Slota was charged with a €5,000 fine and a 16-month ban from driving for a similar accident in Čadca (Žilina Region) back in 2013.
