NAKA detained former Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák on Wednesday (April 20). He, along with the prime minister and Smer-SD party chief Robert Fico, accused him of founding and plotting a criminal group. As Fico is a Member of Parliament, his possible detention requires the consent of the National Council. According to media reports, both were also to be accused of endangering tax secrecy. The case is related to the Purgatory case.
The police also confirmed the accusation of lawyer Marek Paru, he is also to be detained. The Office of the Special Prosecutor’s Office of the General Prosecutor’s Office (ÚŠP GP) SR added to the social network that on Tuesday (April 19) the NAKA investigator filed charges against four persons in total for three acts as part of the Twilight event. “The accusation concerns the crime of establishing, conspiracy and supporting a criminal group, the offense of abuse of power by a public official (in the case of RF and RK) and all four persons have been charged with repeated crimes of business, banking, postal, telecommunications and tax secrets,” he said. Attorney General Maroš Žilinka announced today on the social network that special prosecutor Daniel Lipšic will be expelled from the proceedings and decisions in the case of the accused MP and Smer leader Robert Fico, due to doubts about his impartiality. “In a criminal case against a member of the National of the Council of the Slovak Republic, in which the Prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor’s Office of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Slovak Republic supervises compliance with legality in the preparatory proceedings due to jurisdiction he is excluded from the proceedings and decisions in this criminal case due to doubts about his impartiality, “Attorney General Žilinka wrote on the social network. As he further pointed out, he does not withdraw the criminal case from the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s Office of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Slovak Republic. At the same time, he instructed the prosecutor in charge of acting as Deputy Special Prosecutor to act on his behalf when requesting the National Council to issue a member of the National Council in custody. Žilinka also requested restraint in her statements. “I strongly urge politicians and the media to be restrained in their statements and conclusions on a criminal matter without knowledge of the file and to respect the presumption of innocence,” he said. See also: Authors: TASR, ra