"I find it disconcerting to see what kind of games have been started via the media and the misleading ways in which someone is attempting to destabilise the police," Police Chief Peter Kovařík declared on Monday. He spoke in response to opposition Smer-SD leader Robert Fico, who earlier in the day released a text message, which supposedly proves police manipulations in the investigation of former special prosecutor Dušan Kovačik, in custody over corruption-related charges. According to Fico, the messages are from the communications of a National Criminal Agency (NAKA) investigator and allegedly reveal that witnesses in corruption cases received instructions on how to testify. Because of this, Smer-SD demands the convening of an extraordinary session of Parliament.
"Investigator Ján Curilla explained that he had sent the SMS text message to an officer who was working on the case. What's important is the fact that the SMS text message was sent on August 22, 2020, at 09:40 - hence, two days after the interrogations were conducted on August 19 and August 20. It's a case in which two individuals provided testimonies. Another important fact is that the trustworthiness of the two testimonies is also corroborated by evidence in writing, dating back to the time when the criminal activities took place," said police spokesperson Michal Slivka. The Police Chief would appreciate it if the Interior Ministry's internal affairs department could interrogate the NAKA officers in question at their earliest convenience, so as to prevent such disinformation and twisting of facts from occurring again.
Prime Minister Eduard Heger called on the opposition to stop intimidating law enforcement bodies and let them do their work. He was reacting to Voice-SD leader Peter Pellegrini, who earlier in the day claimed that the Prime Minister had reasons to fear that some of the detained "confessants", cooperating with the police, might start talking about Heger's activities from his pre-politics days, when he "represented a firm that was doing business with alcohol". Heger called Pellegrini's statement pure nonsense. He also stated that he knows nothing about alleged text messages exchanged between prosecutors and investigators about influencing witnesses in criminal cases.
