Former SIS director Ivan Lexa (source: Sme archive)
The abduction of the president’s son, one of the notorious crimes from the times of Vladimír Mečiar’s rule, has been described in a new testimony. A former secret service agent, now sitting in jail in the African state of Mali, says that he was one of the men who kidnapped Michal Kováč, Jr.
Ľuboš Kosík says he was one of the five members of the task force that abducted the son of then-president Michal Kováč in August 1995. He describes the kidnapping and other crimes he says the Slovak Information Service (SIS) was involved in, in the statement he sent to the Sme daily from Mali. He also confirms in the statement that the kidnapping was overseen personally by then-SIS director Ivan Lexa.
“Everything was directed by Ivan Lexa,” Kosík stated. “He knew about every step of the SIS members during the abduction.”
Kosik’s testimony does not reveal new facts, nor does it bring any surprising turns in the abduction case. Its importance is that it is a first-hand account of how Kováč, Jr. was kidnapped.
“The things people have been talking about for 20 years and described in the formal charges have now been confirmed by a man who admitted to having really been a member of the team that abducted the president’s son,” Sme investigative reporter and head of news desk Matúš Burčík, who has been covering the case for the daily and who spoke to Kosík, said on the Dobré Ráno podcast of the Sme daily.
