A SLOVAK news outlet has reported that police investigators have charged Andrej Ďurkovský, the former mayor of Bratislava, with violating his duties in managing public property. The report was published by news website Aktualne.sk, but police have not officially confirmed it, the TASR newswire wrote.
Ďurkovský was elected as an MP for the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) in 2010 but later resigned from the party. The criminal investigation centres on his period as mayor of Bratislava and controversy over the planned demolition of the city’s PKO cultural centre.
The current PKO building was to be replaced with a project called Riverside City funded by the Henbury Development company. The city council approved the sale of the property on which PKO stands in late June 2005, in order to allow for the demolition of the existing structure and construction of the new development. Reportedly, a contract on cooperation was signed and Ďurkovský asked the state construction authority for permission to demolish the centre.
The police launched an investigation of Ďurkovský’s past decisions in early 2011 while he was serving as a member of parliament.
The Office for the Fight Against Corruption twice asked the Office of the General Prosecutor to submit a request for parliament to strip Ďurkovský of his immunity. The first request was returned to the police with the prosecutor’s office citing lack of evidence and the second request was returned this March when Ďurkovský asked for the prosecution to be halted.
