NAKA investigates alleged blackmail of president

The National Criminal Agency (NAKA) will deal with the case of the alleged blackmail of President Andrej Kiska. "The national anti-crime unit has started to act, on the basis of publicized information, in the criminal case of extortion," said police spokeswoman Denisa Baloghová. On Friday President Andrej Kiska claimed that the criminal prosecution being levelled against the statutory representative of the firm KTAG - which Kiska co-owns - is an act of vengeance on the part of ex-PM and Smer party Chairman Robert Fico, for Kiska's refusal to appoint him as judge or chairman of the Constitutional Court. He allegedly received a phone call from Fico's coalition partner, Most-Hid Chairman Béla Bugár, who said that if Kiska did not appoint Fico a war would be waged against him. Fico rebuffed the president's claims, arguing that, on the contrary, it was president Kiska who was influencing law enforcement agencies when he requested to be informed on the case of his company KTAG.