National Bank of Slovakia Governor Peter Kažimír (source: TASR)
The closing arguments of National Bank of Slovakia governor Peter Kažimír’s defence team stretched over several days, but according to the court they focused on irrelevant details and sought to divert attention from the essence of the case.
That emerges from the written justification of the May ruling by the Specialised Criminal Court, prepared in recent days by Judge Milan Cisarik and obtained by SME under the Freedom of Information Act.
In a 58-page explanation, Cisarik set out why he concluded that Kažimír committed bribery in 2016 in order to speed up tax inspections. Three months ago, the former finance minister was fined €200,000 for the offence.
“The court considers the defendant Kažimír’s version of events to be false, a deliberate attempt to avoid the consequences of his unlawful conduct,” Cisarik wrote.
The judge said the evidence pointed not only to personal and business links between companies Loject 1 to Loject 6 and Kažimír, a former minister for the ruling Smer party, but also to unusually swift treatment by the tax authorities and inconsistencies in witness statements.
Although Kažimír’s lawyers tried repeatedly to discredit the key witness, former tax authority chief František Imrecze, they failed to do so. The court deemed Imrecze’s testimony “comprehensive, credible and authentic”, corroborated by extensive supporting evidence – from the €48,000 cash bribe Kažimír is alleged to have had on hand, to official documents and tax office rulings.
