Interior Minister Daniel Lipšic (Christian Democratic Movement (KDH)) has said he believes new information will soon emerge regarding the widely publicised Gorilla file, an as-yet unverified document that was released on the internet that has raised suspicions of high-level corruption and unethical lobbying in Slovak politics in 2005-6.
“There will be more written evidence,” Lipšic said in an interview for the Sme daily, adding that the archives of Prime Minister Iveta Radičová (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ)) could produce more information. Her office has already handed over a document which confirmed, according to Lipšic, that the Slovak Information Service (SIS) intelligence agency did carry out the Gorilla operation, during which secret recordings were made at a flat in Vazovova Street, Bratislava, of meetings between senior politicians, officials and businessmen.
Lipšic also told Sme that back in 2008 Slovak police shredded not only information submitted to it by the SIS that confirmed the Gorilla document, but also the whole background file connected with it. This goes against all usual police practices, Lipšic claimed.
Tibor Gašpar, the former head of the police’s Office for the Fight against Corruption (which dealt with Gorilla because it concerned corruption) reacted by saying that there was no ill intention behind the shredding, and at the time the file was handled a different regulation was effective which enabled the police to shred it.
Lipšic told Sme that a further investigation by the Interior Ministry would look into the past actions of the police in the Gorilla case.
Source: Sme
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
