The investigator of the case involving alleged tunnelling in the intelligence service has charged former head of the Military Intelligence Service Roman Mikulec and former secret service officer Katarína Svrčeková. Though the Office of the Special Prosecutor refused to reveal any further details, the two were allegedly accused of sabotage and breaching confidential information, the SITA newswire reported on June 24.
The charges came after Mikulec was detained on suspicion of leaking classified documents which are purported to describe alleged tunnelling at the intelligence service during the rule of the first Robert Fico government (2006-10). The case, which the Sme daily first reported in mid-May, surfaced under Mikulec, who was at the helm of the service in the era of Iveta Radičová (2010-12), Sme reported on June 24.
The police searched Mikulec’s car on June 22 when he was with his girlfriend, Svrčeková. Svrčeková has since expressed concern that the police might have planted evidence in Mikulec’s car.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor said that they found classified documents, but failed to specify what those were. The prosecutor ordered the arrest after the VSS documents were delivered anonymously to several media outlets over the last several days, Sme wrote.
Svrčeková said that she and Mikulec had packed their car with luggage in preparation for a trip, but that the police later removed items from the car during their inspection that she did not recall being there. Moreover, during her police interrogation on June 23, she was told that documents containing confidential information were found in her bag.
According to the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the detention of Mikulec, as well as the hearing of Svrčeková, is an ominous indication of an effort to intimidate witnesses in the case, adding that the practice of persecuting witnesses based on fabricated evidence is normally used by authorities who exist outside the law. SaS also called on police and prosecutors not to get dragged into intrigues that might be arranged by those suspected of machinations, the SITA newswire reported.
After the case emerged, Mikulec told the Parliamentary Committee for Overseeing the Military Intelligence Service that he is willing to confirm the authenticity of the document that reveals suspicions of tunnelling. Later he expressed concerns that evidence of tunneling will be covered up during a new internal inquiry, Sme reported.
Meanwhile, the police said that anyone who is discovered to have leaked VSS information and documents containing suspicions of tunnelling will face 25 years in prison, Sme wrote. In addition to the investigation into the leak of the classified information, they are also looking into suspicions in the report that Sme handed over to the Office of the Special Prosecutor. Police President Tibor Gašpar meanwhile said that the events described in the documents are being verified.
In addition to this, a reporter of the Hospodárske Noviny daily, Martina Tvardzíková Ruttkayová, testified about the case in an interrogation lasting for almost five hours, Sme reported on June 22.
Source: Sme, SITA
For more information about his story please see: New claims emerge in VSS case
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
