Police have charged Fico and Kaliňák with several crimes, including abuse of power and the establishment and support of a criminal group. He suspects, among other things, that at the time they were in power, they abused the police and the financial administration to discredit political opponents, including former President Andrei Kiska and current Finance Minister Igor Matovic.
“It is necessary to close the mouth of the opposition, it is best to send the chairman of the strongest parliamentary opposition party into custody for telling the truth about the fraudsters Kisk and Matovic,” Fico responded to the police’s efforts to prosecute him. He also announced the convening of an anti-government protest in early May. According to him, opposition deputies also submitted a motion to the Chamber of Deputies to express a vote of no confidence in the Minister of the Interior, Roman Mikulec. Already on Wednesday, Fico called his prosecution a political revenge.
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Slovak deputies generally do not have immunity from prosecution, they cannot be charged only for voting and for statements made in the Chamber of Deputies and its bodies.
Kaliňák is not a member of parliament. A possible motion to prosecute him would be submitted to the court by a prosecutor who oversees the investigation of the ex-minister’s case.
According to the police, the victims are, among others, Matovič and Kiska
Together with Fic and his party colleague Kaliňák, the police have now accused former police president Tibor Gašpar and a businessman with ties to Smer-SD representatives Norbert Bödör. They have been prosecuted for a long time in a case involving suspected police abuse. According to the newspaper Sme, after accusing Fico and Kaliňák, the police managed to connect this case with the top of Smer-SD.
According to the police, the victims in Ficova and Kaliňák are mainly Kiska and Matovič, whose Movement of Ordinary People and Independents in 2020 convincingly won the parliamentary elections. These ended in the defeat of Smer-SD and the party’s departure into the opposition. From the position of president, Kiska defined himself towards Smer-SD, and Matovič has long been a strong critic of the Social Democrats.
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The police rely, for example, on the statements of former leaders of the financial administration regarding the requirements for discrediting Kiska and Matovič in connection with their business. In the past, Fico labeled Kiska and Matovič as tax fraudsters, and non-public information about Kisk’s company also leaked to the media. These concerned a possible tax offense in connection with the financing of the campaign before the 2014 presidential election, in which Kiska defeated Fica.
The prosecutor’s office in the tax case filed a charge in Kiska last week, the ex-president has in the past called the case a revenge from Fico.
Former three-time Slovak Prime Minister Fico has long criticized the prosecution of former senior officials, former judicial staff and others who were previously accused in several waves of arrests. Slovakia experienced them after the last elections. Fico also verbally attacked elite police investigators, prosecutors and some judges. Smer-SD was in power first from 2006 to 2010 and then from 2012 to 2020, of which he ruled alone for four years.
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