Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party leader Richard Sulík asked Marián Kočner, a controversial businessman who appeared on the so-called mafia lists compiled by police, to investigate several of the candidates on his then-new party’s candidate list before the 2010 parliamentary elections. Sulík confirmed on February 28.
However, other claims made by Kočner during a press conference he held on February 28 have prompted SaS to say it will now file a criminal complaint against the businessman, the Sme daily reported.
“Dear deputies, you would be surprised what I know about you,” Kočner said, as quoted by Sme.
Kočner told journalists that he began meeting Sulík before the 2010 parliamentary elections, and not after them as had previously been reported. Moreover, while Sulík had earlier referred to five or six meetings, Kočner said that they had met more than ten times.
He also claimed that SaS received a financial gift of €166,000 towards its election campaign from one of the co-owners of the Penta financial group, Jozef Špirko, Sme wrote.
“Mr Kočner has been throwing buckets of dirt on SaS and its representatives for nearly two hours without a single [piece of evidence],” Sulík responded, as quoted by Sme, adding that the party had been grossly maligned.
“The press conference closed with [the statement] that these are his feelings. It was two hours of the feelings, speculations, opinions and thoughts of Mr Kočner,” Sulík added.
He also cast doubt on Kočner’s statement that some people in politics had just one goal – to privatise the gas utility SPP – saying that this is nonsense since the privatisation had already taken place during the second government of Mikuláš Dzurinda, and the present cabinet pledged in its programme statement not to sell any strategic state-owned businesses, the SITA newswire reported.
However, Sulík confirmed that he had asked Kočner check up on his party colleagues and their activities before the 2010 elections. He did not reveal the specific number of checks, nor the reasons for them, nor whether Kočner’s findings affected the final version of the party’s slate in 2010, Sme wrote.
Meanwhile, Sulík visited the Office for the Fight Against Corruption, where he gave testimony on alleged buying of MPs’ votes during the election of a new general prosecutor held in December 2010, SITA reported.
He provided investigators with e-mail communications between him and Kočner which, according to him, prove that Kočner has information about the identity of the so-called traitors who voted for the opposition nominee Dobroslav Trnka instead of the coalition candidate Jozef Čentéš.
Sources: Sme, SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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