Police investigators have reportedly charged the former mayor of Bratislava, Andrej Ďurkovský, with violating his duties in managing public property, according to the Aktualne.sk news website. Ďurkovský, who was elected as an MP for the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) in 2010 but later left the party, is one of the main suspects in the case, which pertains to the planned demolition of the PKO cultural centre in Bratislava. The police have not officially confirmed the report, the TASR newswire wrote.
The old PKO building was to be replaced by a project called Riverside City, funded by the Henbury Development company. City councillors accepted the sale of the property on which PKO stands in order to allow for the demolition of the existing structure and construction of the new development, in late June 2005. They reportedly signed a contract on cooperation based on which Ďurkovský asked the state construction authority for permission to demolish PKO.
The police launched an investigation against Ďurkovský over his decisions in early 2011, while he was serving as a KDH MP. The Office for the Fight Against Corruption asked the Office of the Prosecutor General to submit a request to parliament aimed at stripping Ďurkovský of his parliamentary immunity twice. The first proposal was returned to police due to an alleged lack of evidence, while the second proposal was returned to the regional office of the prosecutor in Bratislava after Ďurkovský requested the prosecution be dropped in March this year.
Ďurkovský left the KDH as a result of the investigation and has spent most of the past 22 months as an independent deputy. He left parliament after the general election in March and therefore no longer enjoys parliamentary immunity.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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