Slovak News Back to the news
Zervan Views His Dismissal as Political
Monday 27 December 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 27 (TASR) - Slovak Ambassador to Great Britain Juraj Zervan said on Monday that he considers the decision to dismiss him from his post to be a political one, although he's willing to accept it.
Zervan protested against the reason given for his dismissal by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, however. He claims that the information is misleading, incorrect and will damage his reputation and career.
"The Foreign Affairs Ministry deliberately submitted false and deliberately misleading information to SME daily with the aim of harming me," reads Zervan's statement.
SME daily on Monday reported that Zervan is being dismissed for an alleged attempt to cut a non-profitable deal involving a large house in Hampstead, London that is owned by Slovakia. Zervan allegedly planned the deal concerning the house, which is valued at 2.8 million pounds, without the ministry's consent. The embassy planned to exchange the property for the long-term lease of four apartments in Wimbledon.
Zervan claims that it was former foreign affairs minister Miroslav Lajcak who decided on the change, based on an assessment made by the ministry's investment committee. "The ambassador was only the intermediary of the exchange. He was supposed to look for apartments and prepare them for the investment commission, which would subsequently approve the exchange of the house or not," wrote Zervan in his statement.
Lajcak claims that the ambassador isn't telling the truth. "The initiative came from him, after which he was asked to submit a proposal in accordance with the rules. When he submitted it, it was assessed as non-profitable and non-qualified, so he received another order to put an immediate halt to all moves concerning this matter," Lajcak told TASR.
He also claims it isn't true that the head of the representative office in London in 2009 signed documents that if submitted to the constructor of the apartments would allow the exchange to go ahead without the ministry's blessing.
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.
