Special Prosecutor Dušan Kováčik (source: SME)
Special Prosecutor Dušan Kováčik is now interested in the recording found in the safe of currently imprisoned businessman Marian Kočner. He has asked the investigative team for the original, the Aktuality.sk news website reported.
The recording allegedly includes conversations between politicians and Jaroslav Haščák of the Penta financial group about kickbacks and corruption during the rule of the second cabinet of Mikuláš Dzurinda in the wiretapped flat on Vazovova Street in Bratislava between the years 2005 and 2006.
The investigators of the Gorilla team originally handed in only a copy of the recording to Kováčik. He then required the original from Kočner’s safe but in written form. He has not yet received this.
“The case is still under investigation,” said Lukáš Kyselica, head of the Gorilla team, as quoted by Aktuality.sk.
When the information about the recording leaked to the public, Penta immediately required that it be destroyed. The company has turned to the Special Prosecutor’s Office led by Kováčik.
Kováčik meanwhile denied the allegation that he was obstructing the investigation, according to spokesperson Jana Tökölyová.
“The special prosecutor, as the overseeing prosecutor, only used his legal authority according to Criminal Order regulations,” she said, as quoted by the Denník N daily.
What are the obstacles?
The recording is important because the transcript in the Gorilla file only contains some of the dialogues. Moreover, it is not a literal transcript. The Gorilla team is also investigating the suspicion that the recordings might have been be traded.
The police have started prosecution in this case twice. Kováčik halted the first without explaining his decision.
Later, when the prosecution was renewed, Kováčik took the file from the former head of the team Marek Gajdoš and gave it to another investigator. Gajdoš left the police after quarrels with Kováčik and then-police corps president Tibor Gašpar, Aktuality.sk reported.
Kováčik also kept refusing attempts by the investigators to question a key witness in the Gorilla case, former member of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) intelligence agency, Peter Holúbek, who was responsible for recording Haščák’s interviews with influential politicians and state officers.
Police officers did eventually question Holúbek. However, a key witness described it as “comedy”.
“The questioning related only to peripheral things that were not important from the Gorilla point of view,” he said, as quoted by Aktuality.sk.
