BRATISLAVA, July 24, (WEBNOVINY) — Investigation of the Gorilla case is continuing intensively, the investigation team is following a number of leads, in some of them it moved further and deeper, while elsewhere it remains on the surface. This is how carefully Interior Minister Robert Kalinak described progress in clarifying this highly sensitive political corruption case from over six years ago at the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Security on Tuesday. „It should be borne in mind that this is an on-going case and investigation is still in progress,“ Kalinak cited the warning of the report’s authors about the Gorilla investigation. He told the committee that investigators in some cases achieved genuine progress. „They are creating a map that already is not 2D, but begins to be 3D. This mosaic still has a lot of stones that will be missing.“ Kalinak said he feels that eventually, it would be possible to describe in detail the image of this map that could be drawn after several years since the investigated events.
The committee then asked the minister to prepare another progress report from the investigation for their first session after the new year. Its vice-chairman Alojz Hlina (OLaNO) said that by following progress of the investigation they are creation indirect pressure and protecting public interest. Kalinak said he has no problem with that. „The only thing that can damage things and why I think they [authors of the report] are not more specific in it is that they are standing against a mighty opponent. And when they stand against a strong opponent, they are trying to give him as few opportunities as possible to allow the opponent to prepare perfectly,“ said Kalinak.
Minister Kalinak said that when the investigation team first met with him, they asked to add to the team more professionals and technical support. Kalinak said he does not want to interfere either in the direction of investigation of the team members or in how they want to evaluate the evidence.
According to the report prepared by Special Prosecutor Dusan Kovacik, it is not yet possible to file charges against anyone specific in the Gorilla case. This despite the fact that investigators have so far questioned about fifty witnesses and gathered around 60,000 pages of documentary evidence. Kalinak explained that a person can be charged with a crime in a case when a causal link is proven between the deed and the incurred damage.
The alleged secret service document publicized on the Internet at the end of last year describes political influence of a local financial group on political decisions in 2005 and 2006. The extensive material describes how persons were nominated to state-run enterprises, privatization commissions, and a web of relationships across politics, business, and security services. Although it was confirmed that the secret service surveillance action codenamed Gorilla was actually carried out, the authenticity of the document published on the Internet was not verified, on the contrary, several people featuring in the paper questioned its authenticity.
Former Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic (KDH) formed a specialized team investigating the case that continues its work also under the current government. Its members are top level detectives and investigators from the Office for Combating Organized Crime, the Office to Fight Corruption and the Police Inspection Office. On January 9, prosecution was launched for the crime of establishing, plotting and supporting a criminal group, specific persons are suspected of crimes especially of corruption and abuse of power. The prosecution is overseen by the Office of Special Prosecutor.
SITA