The spokesperson of the Bratislava Regional Court, Pavol Adamčiak, announced on Thursday that that the ex-Minister of the Economy (2002-05) and former co-owner of the private TV channel Markiza would be remanded in custody awaiting trial.
Pavol Rusko was taken into custody in order to prevent him from potentially influencing witnesses. Both the defendant and prosecutor filed an appeal against Thursday's decision, with the latter demanding a different form of custody - 'in view of the risk of flight'.
On Monday (October 23), the sme.sk website broke the news that Pavol Rusko had been arrested by the police on suspicion of hiring a contract killer to murder his former business associate Sylvia Volzová via the criminal underworld back in 1997. The case is being investigated by the National Crime Agency.
It has been alleged that the investigation was initiated based on a criminal complaint lodged by former Banská Bystrica crime boss Mikuláš Černák, who is currently serving a life sentence for other murders.
There is no evidence at this stage that could corroborate the notion that crime boss Mikuláš Černák, currently serving a life sentence and facing murder charges, told the police that former TV Markiza owner identified due to legal reasons only as Pavol R. allegedly ordered the murder of his erstwhile business associate Sylvia Volzova back in 1997, said Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar in Banská Bystrica on Thursday. He spoke in response to media reports suggesting that the police had been notified about the plans to murder Volzová - plans, which if they existed, were not actually carried out - in 2014 at the latest.
At Thursday's press conference, the Police Corps President emphasised that every time Černák informed the police that he was ready to testify and help shed light on a certain criminal case, a number of police investigators always met him, each working with his testimony on their individual cases. "If he made any statement about that [plans to murder Volzová], it was only that he had information about serious criminal activity at best, at the time committed by an active and important constitutional official, but he never gave details of the name or post, and never spoke about the potential victim," said Gašpar.
"These types of statements are extremely harmful. Let's refrain from attacking the law enforcement bodies - if we do that, we'll have no chance of administering justice," said Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák.
