The Slovak Foreign Ministry is currently working to get Jozef Ličko, a Slovak who has been held in the African republic of Chad for more than two months, released, the TASR newswire reported on Thursday, February 14. The ministry said it had approached the French Embassy and the EU delegation in Chad for help.
Ličko reportedly works for Slovak firm HONTstav, which was the main sub-contractor for a Chadian-Libyan company, Soliinvest, which won a contract with Chad's government to build a football stadium in the country's capital, N'Djamena, in 2010.
The Foreign Ministry claims to have been successful in securing the earlier return to Slovakia of six Slovak staff who had been working for HONTstav in Chad. This came after Soliinvest turned to the Chadian Prosecutor's Office over what it described as "doubts concerning the intentions of HONTstav". However, the exact reasons for Ličko's detention remain unclear.
Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič on Thursday signed a letter addressed to Chadian President Idriss Déby urging him to intervene in the Ličko case, TASR reported.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
