Igor Matovič (source: SME)
The ruling coalition uses the system of snitches, people suspected of serious crimes but who have decided to talk so they don't have to face consequences for their actions, said Robert Fico, former three-time prime minister and chair of the opposition party Smer on May 23.
He named several people detained during police operations in the past year, but who decided to testify against other people. One of them was Bernard Slobodník, who repeatedly met with Finance Minister Igor Matovič (OĽaNO), according to Fico.
Matovič admitted to meeting him, but refuted claims about any benefits given to Slobodník. His party stressed in an official statement that the police have freedom in investigating crimes.
What Fico said
Apart from Slobodník, a former head of the financial police unit of the National Criminal Agency (NAKA), Fico mentioned other former police officers, namely Ľudovít Makó, former head of the criminal office of the Financial Administration, and Boris Beňa, ex-deputy director of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) intelligence agency. He called them the main snitches.
“It's clear today that people charged without evidence or reasons are sitting in detention,” Fico said, as quoted by the TASR newswire, calling this “a method of destroying the opposition.”
The system of snitches is linked to Matovič, Fico continued, referring to the meeting between Matovič and Slobodník. He is also convinced that the recent meeting of top Slovakia’s officials in SIS was about the system of snitches and that they are lying about the real subject of their talks.
Matovič responds
Matovič confirmed meeting with Slobodník about three times after the 2018 murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová.
“I had a feeling that he started realising after the murder what kind of mafia he had been serving for years,” OĽaNO chair wrote on Facebook. “He gave me nothing, I gave him nothing.”
Matovič stressed that he did not meet with Slobodník before or after the 2020 general election.
Referring to Slobodník’s testimony, Matovič said that he maybe decided to testify on the mafia practices of the former Smer-led governments.
OĽaNO issued another statement, claiming that the police are free of interference and need to follow the laws and public interest in their investigations, adding that law enforcement bodies were particularly exploited under the governments led by Smer, TASR reported.
