Slovak News Back to the news
Radicova Wants to Speed Up Investigations of Smer and SDKU Financing
Wednesday 21 July 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, July 21 (TASR) - Prime Minister Iveta Radicova (SDKU-DS) would like to see the published cases such as the financing of Smer-SD and SDKU-DS parties investigated more quickly, General Prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka told journalists on Wednesday after his meeting with Radicova.
"She told me that she's not exerting pressure on me, as she can't intervene in the investigations. Of course, I understand that but these cases are under remit of a special prosecutor with whom I'll have a word," said Trnka.
He also discussed with Radicova the intent of the new Government to shift the budgeting of the General Prosecutor's Office under the Justice Ministry. "We touched on that briefly as well. Let's wait for what the Manifesto will have to say. I explained to the Prime Minister the reasons why the General Prosecutor's Office has an independent budget. Our standing is set out in the Constitution," he stressed. When asked whether such a change would rid the Prosecutor's Office of its independence, Trnka said: "I hope that fact is doubted by no one."
Trnka also said that businessman and former Smer-SD MP Bohumil Hanzel didn't give any information to the General Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday (July 20) regarding the audio recording published by many media that contained the voice similar to Smer-SD chairman Robert Fico. Thus, Trnka stands ready to hand over all the materials to the Special Prosecutor.
"If there are suspicions of a crime and it's possible that a corruption took place, these issues are being dealt with by the Special Prosecutor's Office and Special Judge," said Trnka. He also reiterated that he doesn't have an official recording at his disposal, only the audio record provided by the SME daily chief editor and Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic (KDH). "Of course, I have the cassettes, as I downloaded the files from my computer to the proper medium, but I have no way of knowing whether this will suffice for the needs of the special prosecutor or not," added Trnka.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
