THE SPECIAL Task Force Department of the General Prosecutor’s Office was granted an international arrest warrant for Karol Mello, an alleged mafia boss, by the Nitra District Court on July 15, the SITA newswire reported.
Mello, who is accused of organising a 2004 gangland hit which left a woman and child dead, is currently on the run for a second time.
He was arrested late last year in Poland after being sought by Slovak police for several years and extradited and charged.
However, a series of legal bungles led to a Bratislava court ordering his release from custody earlier this year. Mello was later reported to have fled again, as a wrangle continued over which court, if any, was authorised to issue a warrant for his re-arrest.
The police had been waiting for a warrant for Mello for weeks, but judges in Topoľčany, Nitra and Bratislava passed the prosecutor’s filing from one court to another.
After the Nitra District Court agreed to issue the international arrest warrant, the police immediately announced they were searching for Mello, and asked the public to help with any information about a “180-cm-tall man with short brown hair”.
Justice Minister Lucia Žitňanská has meanwhile filed a proposal for disciplinary action against the Bratislava I District Court judges who, she says, were responsible for Mello’s earlier release, SITA reported.
