The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party on Tuesday lodged a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor-General's Office in Bratislava in connection with the installation of traffic radar cameras on Slovak roads.
"There are serious suspicions that the interior minister failed to act when he should have, and that the Interior Ministry didn't fulfil its obligation to protect Slovak citizens," said PS Presidium member Peter Bator, adding that there are also concerns about the prices at which the cameras were sold to the Interior Ministry.
According to PS, the suspected offences include abuse of power by a public official, the obstruction of obligations by a public official, breaching obligations in the administration of someone else's property, fraud, forgery and the alteration of a public document, computer-related offences, sabotage, espionage, unauthorised handling of personal data, as well as possible corruption-related offences.
"At the same time, in this criminal complaint we suggest 15 specific measures that the law-enforcement authorities could focus on," added Bator.
According to PS, it's essential that "all people and all companies involved in preparing and installing these cameras should undergo a thorough and detailed security check". Bator also stated that the security risks need to be reassessed.
In addition, PS MP Jaroslav Spišiak pointed to claims by Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok (Hlas-SD) that the ministry was deceived. However, according to Spišiak, there was no public statement from Šutaj Eštok about the ministry filing a criminal complaint over fraud.
"In the criminal complaint, we've also included the suspicion of fraud. In doing so, we're effectively standing in for the interior minister, who, in my view, should have filed this criminal complaint himself if he claims to have been deceived," he said.
The case is being investigated by law-enforcement bodies, while Prosecutor-General Maroš Žilinka has instructed the Bratislava Prosecutor's Office to examine the matter. The National Security Bureau (NBU) described the cameras as a significant cyber-security threat and published a warning in connection with several devices. NBU assessed the cameras based on a request from the Interior Ministry after PS warned about the alleged deployment of a Russian surveillance system.
At a press conference held last week, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) rejected the idea of Slovakia's security being under threat because of two speed cameras. He opined that it doesn't matter which country the components in the cameras in question came from, maintaining that whatever a traffic camera can read, any spy satellite can read as well.
"The ministry has no reason to fear criminal consequences," stated Interior Ministry spokesperson Matej Neumann. According to him, the opposition, instead of presenting concrete solutions, repeatedly uses criminal complaints against government members as a tool for political campaigning and media publicity.
The ministry also rejected PS's claims about its failure to fulfil its obligation to protect the public. "The two test devices were not put into live operation, were not used to issue fines and were not connected to protected databases. The ministry acted proactively as soon as the first doubts arose and asked NBU to carry out a security analysis, and it removed the devices before the results were submitted," said the ministry spokesperson.
Source: TASR
