Suspects detained in journalist screening case

Police officers from the Interior Ministry's inspection service have detained former head of the Financial Police Intelligence Unit Pavol Vorobjov, deputy director of the Financial Police national unit Milan Mihálik, and one other police officer due to suspicions that they were involved in the illegal screening of murdered journalist Jan Kuciak as well as other journalists, it was reported on Thursday. Criminal proceedings regarding the case were launched in April, after former Police Corps president Tibor Gašpar testified about the matter at the National Crime Agency (NAKA) in early March. He was questioned about Vorobjov's statement that Gašpar gave an order in 2017 to have Kuciak screened. Gašpar said the statement was untrue, adding that the matter concerned the case of Filip Rybanič, who was an assistant to Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) MP Jozef Rajtár. As a bank employee Rybanič had violated banking secrecy by going public with information about the bank account of former interior minister Robert Kaliňák.