Zoroslav Kollár (left) was arrested during the Gale police raid. (source: SME - Marko Erd)
Zoroslav Kollár has admitted to bribing the former head of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) Vladimír Pčolinský, nominated by the Sme Rodina party, according to a report on the Aktuality.sk news website.
The daily claimed to have confirmed the information with three independent sources.
Kollár, a lawyer, wants to make a deal with prosecutors on a plea bargain, conditioned on Kollár's confession. Details as to what he has said are not known.
Three out of four plead guilty
Vladimír Pčolinský had faced criminal prosecution over his alleged acceptance of a €40,000 bribe from Kollár in August 2020. The bribe was supposed to stop SIS officials from wiretapping him.
The charges against him stated that the former SIS director divided the bribe between himself and his then deputy head of SIS, Boris Beňa. The bribe was allegedly delivered by Ľudovít Makó. Beňa and Makó have since confessed to the crime, and testified against Pčolinský.
With the most recent reported confession, of the four allegedly involved, only Pčolinský continues to maintain his innocence.
The former spy boss was detained for several months but in August last year he was acquitted due to a lack of evidence and procedural errors. However, in February 2022 he was charged again.
No comment from investigators
According to Aktuality.sk, the former SIS head is not aware of the details of Kollár's confession. Pčolinský said that Kollár only admitted to giving money to Makó.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office said that the investigation is not public and investigators declined to comment.
