The district and investigation prosecutor's office in the Gyor-Moson-Sopron County in Hungary has closed an investigation into the case of former Slovak national Hedviga Žáková Malinová started by the Slovak authorities on the suspicion of perjury and other crimes, with the Slovak side handing it over to the Hungarian authorities in 2016. The Hungarian authorities closed the case because of a lack of evidence. The information was brought by the Hungarian authorities on Thursday.
"I am pleased that the case of Hedviga Žáková Malinová has been closed but twelve years from the start of the investigation is not an appropriate time", Justice Minister Gábor Gál (Most-Hid) said at a press conference on Thursday in connection with the information that the Hungarian authorities had completed the investigation of this case.
"The case hurt the whole society because what do we need justice for, if we get it after so many years? The main role of the Justice Ministry under my leadership is that we should be able to speed up proceedings," said the Minister who was Hedviga Žáková Malinová's attorney in 2006 after she was attacked by two skinheads for speaking Hungarian. The police investigation of the case was completed within a month, with the conclusion that the deed had not happened, and that the then student of Constantine the Philosopher University had fabricated it. The then Prime Minister Robert Fico and the then Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák called Hedviga Žáková Malinová a constant liar. From May 2007, she was prosecuted for false testimony and perjury. Foreign media and human rights institutions critised the Slovak investigators for procrastination and an insensitive approach to the victim.
During the course of the investigation, Hedviga Žáková Malinová moved to Hungary and became a citizen of Hungary in 2013. She asked the Hungarian institutions to pursue the case in 2016.
