Czech Prime Minister to sue Slovakia over Secret Police record

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who was appointed to office by President Milos Zeman on Wednesday, announced after the ceremony that he'll file a lawsuit against Slovakia at the European Court of Human Rights over suspicions that emerged from archives in Slovakia suggesting that he collaborated with the secret police (ŠtB) during Communism. "I understand that people don't like me. They're under the influence of lies repeated a hundred times ... I'll file a lawsuit against the Slovak Republic at the European Court of Human Rights by June 15," said Babis, as cited by iDNES.cz. The Bratislava Regional Court in February rejected Babiš's lawsuit against Slovakia's Nation's Memory Institute (UPN). The institute released ŠtB records that referred to Babis, who was born in Slovakia, as a collaborator with the Communist secret police under the code name 'Bures'. This ruling followed a decision by the Constitutional Court last year, which overturned a ruling of the Slovak Supreme Court and earlier also of a district court that Babiš's registration as an ŠtB agent was unjustified. UPN at the time welcomed the court decision, claiming that it didn't interfere with Babiš's right to a good reputation by releasing copies of the ŠtB files, as it's mandated to engage in such activity by law. Nevertheless, an expert at the same time pointed out that the Bratislava court only ruled that UPN shouldn't have been sued for releasing copies of the files; it had not been ascertained whether Babis was correctly listed in the ŠtB records.