When the Attorney General says that ethnic Hungarian student Hedviga Malinová will soon be charged with lying to police, we have to believe she will really be charged. But to avoid the fate it suffered six months ago, this case has to be adjudicated by a court.
Last August, Malinová and her legal counsel failed to "convince" police investigators and prosecutors that she had been beaten up by Slovak extremists for talking in Hungarian. Bringing charges against Malinová now is an important step towards ensuring that this case does not end with the truth in doubt.
Interior Minister Róbert Kaliňák said at a press conference last September that "the investigator shelved this case because there is much evidence to prove that the incident never happened". For public life in Slovakia it is important that the proof that Malinová was not beaten up not be presented only at press conferences but in an independent court, which alone can distinguish facts from propaganda. Because anyone who read the blog of former senior police investigator Jozef Šátek or saw the investigative reports on the STV public broadcaster knows that there are a lot of doubts in this case.
Sme, May 3
