The director of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) intelligence agency, Karol Mitrík, reportedly confirmed to MPs sitting on the parliamentary committee for defence and security that SIS agents asked a court to authorise covert surveillance and recording as described in the so-called Gorilla file. However, he did not provide the committee with documentary evidence of the bugging, the Sme daily reported.
Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) MP Pavol Hladký said he is now 100-percent certain that the facts presented in the Gorilla file are true, Sme wrote.
“The answers from Karol Mitrík came,” Hladký said, as quoted by Sme, adding that though the answers were confidential and relatively brief, it is clear that Gorilla is “alive”.
The committee’s chairperson, Martin Fedor, said that Mitrík’s answers were essential to achieve a better understanding of the case. He said that though the document published on the internet has much false information, some parts can be verified, Sme wrote.
Meanwhile, the organisers of protests which have been held against the Gorilla case have demanded the immediate dismissal of Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš, Foreign Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda and Deputy Prime Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Rudolf Chmel, the TASR newswire reported.
They have also demanded that the approaching general election be postponed until September 2012, and for all SIS members involved in the Gorilla case, including former director Jozef Magala, to be allowed, by February 10, to speak freely.
“We intend to exert pressure until those who are embroiled in the Gorilla case are held accountable for it,” said one of the protest organisers, Peter Pčolinský, as quoted by TASR. “It means that we will continue to organise protests ... until they realise that their time has come.”
Sources: Sme, TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
