Information that has appeared on the internet website Lipsic.net is untrue and nothing but a fraud and “absurd material”, Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic (Christian Democratic Movement (KDH)) said on Wednesday, February 8.
Lipšic said he believes that an effort is being made to discredit him in an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing investigation into the Gorilla case. According to him, former members of the SIS intelligence service could be behind the effort. Lipšic said he could not rule out other information concerning his private life, family, alleged co-operation with foreign secret services or even Prime Minister Iveta Radičová (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ)) emerging in the near future, all of it intended to tarnish his reputation.
"It's about us stepping on someone's toes [with the investigation] and in quite a serious way," Lipšic said. He added that such an attempt won't stop his determination to have the Gorilla case investigated. "[Compared to an ordinary citizen] A public official must be able to withstand more [jiggery-pokery and invasions of their privacy]," he added, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
However, Lipšic also suggested that the website could be linked to a decision he made concerning Privatbanka, but he refused to elaborate on that claim other than to say that there were suspicions of money laundering in 2009-10, when 248 unorthodox transactions were carried out. The bank failed to report the transactions, worth €16.5 million in total, to the police, although it was legally obliged to do so. When asked whether there was any connection between the individuals involved in those transactions and people involved in the Gorilla case, the minister refused to comment. Lipšic added that a fine of €15,000 had been imposed on the bank to date.
The Lipsic.net website features documents purporting to come from the Military Defence Intelligence (VOS), the Defence Ministry’s counter-intelligence agency. They suggest that Lipšic worked for the intelligence services in the past under the code name Zelenáč (Greenhorn). They also indicate that Lipšic had contacts with a former agent of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, the SITA newswire wrote. One of the documents on the site says that Lipšic provided the intelligence services with information while he was serving as a conscript in Prešov.
The Defence Ministry stated that the information published on Lipsic.net concerning the interior minister is not true, the TASR newswire reported, citing Defence Ministry spokesman Ivan Rudolf. According to Rudolf, the formal side of the published material is not in line with the way the VOS drafted classified documents in the given period.
Sources: TASR, SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
