Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic, speaking on Thursday, February 16, said that he had read a letter regarding the Gorilla case sent last year by deputy general prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka and expressed the opinion that it clearly showed who was interested in investigating the case and who wanted to drop it.
Lipšic was speaking in reaction to a report published by the Sme daily earlier the same day. The newspaper cited a communication dated April 12, 2011, in which Trnka appeared to attempt to convince the Military Prosecutor's Office to drop an investigation into the Gorilla case. "Without suggesting to you how you should decide on the matter, I'd like to draw your attention to the provision in the Penal Code that deals with halting prosecutions," Trnka wrote. "We're possibly investigating an intelligence game that lacks any evidence, and I'd be curious to see a prosecutor who'd be willing to attach his signature to it," wrote Trnka, adding that the transcripts referred to in the Gorilla file – which became public in December 2011 and have since led to political upheaval – may have been fabricated for the purpose of blackmail.
"The police were investigating resolutely up to the point when the investigation was stopped by the Military and General Prosecutor's Office. So if someone still feels that the police could have been investigating the case for a year and a half, I think that Mr Trnka's letter is unambiguous. Police had been doing the right thing and the prosecutor stopped it," Lipšic said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
Trnka and the General Prosecutor's Office, in a press release on Thursday, categorically rejected Lipšic's allegations, saying that the sections of Trnka's letter published by Sme were taken out of context.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
