THE FIRST major bribery affair to come out of the previous Vladimír Mečiar government resulted in a verdict of not guilty on February 17.
A Bratislava II district court ruled that former Privatisation Minister Peter Bisák and the former head of the National Property Fund, Štefan Gavorník, were not guilty of accepting bribes.
The Slovak daily SME wrote that each man had been suspected of accepting Sk2 million (€49,400) in bribes related to the privatisation of the Bratislava-based firm Elektrosystémy in 1995. Gavorník was also accused of taking Sk15 million (€370,000) in connection with the sale of magnesite company Slovenské magnezitové závody Hačava.
The court remained unconvinced by the main witness, Martin Suchár, who failed to offer evidence in support of his testimony on the alleged bribery.
