List of author's articles, page 12
Brought down by his own ambitions
The Mafia career of Peter Čongrády ended at just past 10:30 on September 9, 2004 on a sidewalk in the Petržalka suburb of Bratislava. Čongrady had just arrived at his favorite pizza parlor and was getting out of his armor-plated Mercedes when he and his bodyguard, Marek Ivančík, were fired on by two unidentified men in Balaclava masks. Čongrády was hit by 12 bullets from an AK-47 machine-gun and died on the spot, while Ivančík took a bullet in the thigh but managed to escape. The assailants fled in a car with stolen Czech plates that was later found burned out at an intersection in the Lamáč suburb.
Ladislav Rehák: You can’t escape your friends
FIVE months after the accession of the Robert Fico government, businessman Ladislav Rehák was arrested on two separate counts of extortion and spent 10 days in pre-trial custody. The case was highly politicized, as Rehák had been the largest individual sponsor of the opposition Christian Democrats, and financed an anti-government magazine, Týždeň. Fico commented after Rehák’s second arrest that “a few interesting days await us”.
Rising above the rest
Reštaurácia VežaCesta na Kamzík 14, BratislavaTel: (02) 4446-2774veza@veza.skwww.veza.skOpen daily 11:30 to 23:30Meal for two: Sk2,000Rating: 7/10
Petrochema given reprieve by Russians
THE FIRM at the center of Slovakia’s fuel tax scam, Petrochema Dubová, is under new Russian management and is re-launching its oil refining business.
When the kids aren’t alright
Milica, a 45-year-old lawyer, watched in horror from her car as she waited to pick up her 15-year-old daughter outside Bratislava’s Dopler discotheque last spring.
Not your average bureaucrat
ON HIS RECENT inspection of the Defence Ministry, Prime Minister Robert Fico issued an unusually frank public warning to senior ministry bureaucrats: Any more scandals, and you can pack your bags.Fico, who at the beginning of June began visiting members of his cabinet and then delivering verbal 'report cards' on their performance so far, was addressing journalists on June 9 after meeting with new Defence Minister Jaroslav Baška. Baška's predecessor, František Kašický, was forced to resign earlier this year after agreeing to pay a grossly inflated Sk4 billion bill for cleaning and snow removal services.
Minister’s letter carried half-billion price tag
A LETTER of intent written by former Interior Minister Gustáv Krajči 10 years ago will end up costing taxpayers half a billion crowns.
Points systems in other countries
IN NORTHUMBRIA in north-east England, police used to post ‘league tables’ in station hallways charting the number of points each officer had been awarded for arrests and fines issued. Last year, an experienced officer blew the whistle on the system, saying it was causing police to focus on repressing crime rather than on preventing it, and was leading to the bullying of officers who favoured a softer approach. After the story hit the newspapers, Northumbria Deputy Chief Constable David Warcup cancelled the points system.
Traffic cops vied to levy higher fines
DO YOU get the feeling that Bratislava traffic police have grown less willing to let people off for minor offences with a warning?
Minister's restaurant among "persons of interest"
THE STEAM & Coffee chain of restaurants, in which Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák has a one-third share, pays rent to a company managed by people the police currently list as "persons of interest".FoRest Inc., the company that operates the Steam & Coffee chain, has had its headquarters since July 2002 in a building on Miletičová Street 23 in the Ružinov district of Bratislava. According to the land records office, the building has belonged to the Liko Bratislava joint-stock company since May 2001.
Top cop borrowed surveillance device
SLOVAKIA’S top anti-mafia cop, Michal Kopčík, has admitted borrowing some police surveillance equipment in early April, but denied allegations by former interior minister Vladimír Palko that he broke the law in doing so.
Kaliňák guts the top of anti-mafia unit
INTERIOR Minister Robert Kaliňák fired almost all the top managers of the police Organised Crime Bureau (ÚBOK) as of May 15, claiming that the new head of ÚBOK, Ivan Ševčík, had requested a fresh team to lead the fight against the mafia.
Business has never been better for Bratislava mobsters
ĽUBOMÍR Kudlička, who according to a police document leaked in 2005 is a member of the Bratislava-based Takáč organised crime group, last became an owner or a board member of a Slovak company in 2002. Since parliamentary elections in June 2006, however, he has entered two companies - as a co-owner of the new firm KSI Investment in July 2007, and as a member of the supervisory board of the Ski Park Ružomberok resort the month before that.
Fico's insecurity is killing public discourse
Prime Minister Robert Fico's baffling response to being caught on an amateur video doing an illegal U-turn last week was further evidence - if any is still needed - that the Slovak identity is crippled by insecurity.
Slota's Sk200 million debt 'landmine' for Žilina
WHEN Ivan Harman took over as the mayor of Žilina in 2006 after the 16-year reign of nationalist leader Ján Slota, he warned of the landmines Slota had left behind that threatened the city's finances.
Lawyer rebuilds after case
LIFE is slowly returning to normal for Bratislava attorney Ernest Valko. Two weeks after a state prosecutor dropped extortion charges against him, Valko continues to rebuild his practice, and says he is more concerned with his clients than with revenge.
Trouble around land restitutions
MARTA Hykaníková, a 76-year-old retiree living in the small town of Nové Mesto nad Váhom in western Slovakia, has proven to be a boon for current and former Slovak politicians looking to buy land restituted from the Slovak Land Fund.
Harach "had to make a living"
The Slovak Spectator (TSS): How did you come to own the land that makes up the Bernolákovo - Západ project?
Case against Valko, Rehák dismissed
EXTORTION charges have been dropped against two prominent supporters of the political opposition, attorney Ernest Valko and businessman Ladislav Rehák.
Arms trader also bought from Slovakia
AN ARMS trading company under investigation by the United States Congress for supplying worthless ammunition to Afghani forces recently bought weapons in Slovakia, The Slovak Spectator has learned.
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- Ambulance hit by Russian drone goes on display in centre of Bratislava
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- Ambulance hit by Russian drone goes on display in centre of Bratislava
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- Water supply to be cut in parts of Bratislava’s Old Town in late April More articles ›
