One of the co-owners of the Penta financial group, Jaroslav Haščák, has asked the special department at the Office of the General Prosecutor to disregard a document given to the investigators by Prime Minister Iveta Radičová which the interior minister, Daniel Lipšic, has said confirms the events described in the so-called Gorilla file, the Sme daily reported.
Haščák, who is one of the main characters in the Gorilla file, a document leaked onto the internet which purports to describe an intelligence agency investigation into the possibly corrupt influence of businesspeople including Haščák himself on senior politicians during the second government of Mikuláš Dzurinda in 2005 and 2006, said he considers the document to be illegal.
“The document was received and submitted [to investigators looking into the case] outside valid legal measures,” said Haščák’s lawyer, Martin Škubla, as quoted by Sme. He explained that the document about the Gorilla file was received by Dzurinda in 2006 when he was still acting prime minister. Škubla asserted that Dzurinda did not have the right to keep it in the archive of the Government Office, but should have returned it to the Slovak Information Service (SIS) intelligence agency, Sme wrote.
Radičová said that the document was given to investigators in accordance with the valid law and following advice from several lawyers.
Meanwhile, the special parliamentary committee that supervises the activities of the SIS announced that the SIS has acted in line with the law since the Gorilla investigation began in 2005. The committee’s discussion was attended by SIS director Karol Mitrík, the TASR newswire reported.
“It was important to be kept informed about all occurrences,” said committee chairman Robert Kaliňák, as quoted by TASR, adding that there was an large amount of information that could be interpreted in various ways, and that doubts had arisen about whether all of the actions related to it were carried out in accordance with the law.
“Now it’s the police’s turn,” he concluded.
Sources: Sme, TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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