Protests against corruption in Bratislava after the murder of Ján Kuciak (2018)
Photo:
VLADIMIR SIMICEK / AFP
More than two and a half years after the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak, the Slovak police arrested several of the police chiefs at the time.
As the special public prosecutor for organized crime confirmed, there were also house searches.
Under the code name "Purgatory", the special unit NAKA took action against several people on suspicion of forming a criminal organization, said a spokeswoman.
She did not provide any further details or names.
Markiza TV showed police officers ransacking a former police chief's private home and led him away.
Other media documented the arrests of a former head of the anti-corruption unit, a former NAKA boss and other former top police officers.
Not the first arrests
An ex-head of the tax investigation had already been arrested in September, and a former attorney general had already been arrested in January.
Other prosecutors and judges as well as the former State Secretary for Justice Monika Jankovska have been in custody for months.
Since the murder of Kuciak and his fiancée in February 2018, the Slovak police have been investigating corrupt networks in the judiciary and their own ranks.
Kuciak reported on corruption cases in Slovakia, including the millionaire Marian Kocner systematically bribing judges and prosecutors to buy acquittals in fraud scandals.
Kocner is believed to have been responsible for the murder of Kuciak, but was surprisingly acquitted in September.
The court did not consider the charges that he ordered and paid for the murder to be proven.
According to the Reuters news agency, the public prosecutor's office appealed and wants to challenge the judge’s verdict before the Slovak Supreme Court.
Kuciak's assassination sparked mass demonstrations in Slovakia that led to the resignation of the then government.
The Conservative Prime Minister Igor Matovic, who has been in power since March, welcomed the police action as a blow to the corrupt networks of the previous social democratic governments.
The social democratic ex-head of government Peter Pellegrini, however, pointed out that he had caused the resignation of the former police chief.
Icon: The mirror
hba / dpa
