Slovak News Back to the news
Fedor: Interior Minister Kalinak Fails to Take Responsibility for Scandal
Wednesday 06 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 6 (TASR) – The scandal involving explosives that travelled undetected from Poprad airport (Presov region) to Dublin following a failed police operation casts a bad light on Slovakia and constitutes an international incident, Opposition SDKU-DS MP and former defence minister Martin Fedor told TASR on Wednesday.
"Interior Minister Robert Kalinak is eager to show off wherever he can to win political points; but when a problem arises he fails to provide explanations and hides behind his inferiors. The minister has now made himself visible internationally," added Fedor.
In Fedor's view, Cabinet members should finally end their holidays and set about tackling problems that weaken Slovakia's position. "We're calling on the minister to explain the situation at the ministerial level. In decent countries, everybody knows what they're supposed to do after such a scandal," concluded Fedor.
Ninety grams of explosive was found in the luggage of a Slovak citizen who boarded a plane in Poprad to Dublin on Saturday. The contraband got into his luggage via Slovakia's police security operation that went awry, as police at the airport hid samples of explosives into the luggage of several passengers within an operation aimed at testing the airport's security procedures. However, 90 grams of the contraband, which got stuck to straps of the bag of a 49-year-old man, travelled undetected. "The police dog found only a trace of odour, and the police officer – a pyrotechnics expert – was then called to another job and forgot to take out the second sample (from the luggage area)," said head of Slovakia's border and foreign police Tibor Mako.
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.
