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General Prosecution Won't Take Action in Land Transfer Case
Wednesday 31 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 31 (TASR) - The Prosecutor General's Office won't pursue legal action in the land transfer in Velka Lomnica and Stara Lesna (both Presov region), as all contracts were signed in accordance with the law, Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka said after the Government's session on Wednesday.
In December 2009, however, Trnka didn't rule out that the scandalous transfer could have been cancelled. He said then that some prosecutors would inspect the land register in Kezmarok (Presov region), while others focus on the Slovak Land Fund (SPF).
"We went over the property structure in Velka Lomnica and Stara Lesna land register and, unfortunately, failed to find any wrongdoing on the part of SPF regarding concluding contracts with restituents," said Trnka. He added that the Prosecutor's Office can't take any steps in the case - unlike a similar scandalous transfer in Velky Slavkov in 2007, which was reversed due to a procedural error on the part of SPF. "That land is state property and should be in the SPF portfolio," said Trnka.
In September 2009, the SPF director and his deputy signed a contract due to which restituents from eastern Slovakia became owners of 1.6 million square meters of land in Velka Lomnica and Stara Lesna. According to the Slovak daily SME, the restituents then sold most of the lucrative land at a bargain price to a company called GVM, which is allegedly close to LS-HZDS chairman Vladimir Meciar. Meciar roundly rejected claims that he was associated with any private company.
On December 2, 2009, Slovak Premier Robert Fico sent a request to the Prosecutor-General's Office to investigate the dubious land transfer. According to him, the Office needed to consider whether it could take court action based on the public interest.
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