Former police chief Peter Kovařík in a courtroom in Bratislava on November 22, 2024. (source: TASR - Martin Baumann)
The Interior Ministry’s police inspectorate, which investigates misconduct among police officers, has launched criminal proceedings against Branislav Dunčko and Róbert Magula for alleged obstruction of justice.
The two police officers, who claim the charges are politically motivated, were detained on December 2.
Dunčko and Magula are former officers of the National Crime Agency (NAKA), which the current Interior Ministry disbanded on September 1 this year. For Magula and Dunčko, who were investigators handling high-profile corruption cases following the 2020 change of government—cases involving individuals with connections to the previous Smer-led administrations—this is their second criminal charge.
Since 2021, they, along with several other officers (including Ján Čurilla, Pavol Ďurka, Štefan Mašin, Milan Sabota, and former acting police inspectorate head Peter Scholtz), have faced charges of abuse of power. The police inspectorate claims that they aimed to conduct politically motivated investigations against individuals from the inspectorate itself, the Slovak Information Service (SIS), and the National Security Authority (NBÚ), allegedly fabricating reasons for these investigations. NAKA officers, however, maintain that they acted on legitimate suspicions of criminal activity. The charges against them are primarily based on wiretaps that the police inspectorate allegedly placed in NAKA offices in spring 2021 during the so-called “police war.” In autumn 2021, the Bratislava District Court deemed their prosecution unfounded. Nevertheless, they continue to face charges, and the trial has yet to begin.
War within the police
When Vladimír Pčolinský, the then-head of the SIS intelligence agency, was detained and charged in spring 2021, the agency began spreading claims that NAKA investigators, such as Ján Čurilla, were manipulating investigations into high-profile cases involving individuals linked to the Smer party. The SIS report on the alleged manipulation of investigations by NAKA investigators also landed in parliament and later leaked to the public. These claims were also picked up by the Oblúk team within the police inspectorate. As NAKA investigators learned that the Oblúk team was trying to discredit them, they attempted to prosecute members of the Oblúk team. However, the General Prosecutor’s Office blocked their efforts. Meanwhile, the NAKA investigators obtained whistleblower status after deciding to speak out about the attempts to undermine them. An important element in this conflict involves manipulated recordings of conversations between NAKA investigators, secretly made by now-convicted former NAKA members who are now fugitives. These recordings were frequently played at press conferences by then-opposition leader Robert Fico, who is now the prime minister.
This week, Matej “Zemák” Zeman, a former member of the Takáčovci mafia group and now abroad, was also charged. Zeman had previously cooperated as a witness with NAKA investigators on corruption cases linked to the Smer party. In summer 2021, NAKA investigators reportedly discovered that Zeman and two other ex-mafia members, Peter “Tiger” Petrov and Csaba Dömötör, were suspects in a police inspectorate case concerning false testimony in big corruption cases handled by NAKA investigators. Therefore, Dunčko and Magula allegedly instructed the trio to evade arrest.
Petrov fled to Hungary, Zeman to Croatia, while Dömötör voluntarily surrendered to a police unit and was convicted of perjury within days.
The case against a group of NAKA investigators was handled by the police inspectorate’s Oblúk (Arch) team, led by Diana Santusová, who has since been promoted to head the National Unit for Combating Illegal Migration. In 2021, her team’s narrative aligned closely with the opposition led by Robert Fico’s Smer, who accused NAKA investigators of manipulating the investigation into high-profile corruption cases.
The new charges are reportedly based on testimony from Petrov, who allegedly confirmed to the police inspectorate that NAKA investigators instructed him to go into hiding.
Punishment for a book, defence says
Peter Kubina, the NAKA investigators’ lawyer, dismissed the latest charges as retaliation for the former NAKA officers’ openness about their work and the internal police conflicts. Recently, journalist Marek Vagovič published a book featuring their accounts, “Čurillovci: Policajti v prvej línii boja s mafiou” (The Čurillas: Policemen on the Frontline of the Fight Against the Mafia).
Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok (Hlas) welcomed the latest charges, claiming to have ended the “police war,” which he counts among his top achievements after a year in office. However, the ministry has been fined €90,000 for suspending these officers, including Čurilla, without the approval of the Whistleblower Protection Office, despite their whistleblower status. Today, the investigators cannot leave their home. As a result, a crowdfunding campaign supporting the investigators has raised over €200,000.
The police war is currently also being addressed in court. Former police chief Peter Kovařík told the court at the end of November how the SIS, a spy agency, in cooperation with the police inspectorate team Oblúk, worked during his tenure to discredit NAKA investigators involved in investigating serious corruption cases. Kovařík left the police in September 2021 after the Bratislava prosecutor’s office charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of justice. He is being prosecuted for ordering the withdrawal of a special forces unit in the summer of 2021, which was requested by Oblúk team leader Diana Santusová in her campaign against investigators led by Ján Čurilla. Santusová allegedly bypassed legal procedures.
