National Bank Governor Petr Kažimír was found guilty of bribery and ordered to pay a €100,000 fine or risk prison for two years, according to a court order from the Specialised Criminal Court that prompted President Zuzana Čaputová and Prime Minister Eduard Heger to call for his resignation.
Kažimír played the role of an intermediary in handing out €48,000 to former tax office head František Imrecze when he was finance minister in the cabinet of Robert Fico (Smer-SD), the judge said. Imrecze was charged with corruption in 2020 and is cooperating with the police.
Kažimír was sentenced based on a court order, meaning that his guilt was ruled only based on the submitted case file and the evidence that emerged from it. There has not yet been a proper hearing with the testimony of witnesses or the defendant.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office has already appealed the court’s decision. The Court will now have to decide on the indictment against Kažimír at a regular hearing.
If proven guilty, the former finance minister faces a sentence of between two and five years, which means he could get off with probation.
The National Bank governor did yet not answer questions about whether he intends to resign. Still, he referred the media to his defence lawyer Ondrej Mularčík who in turn did not comment on the order because he has not yet received it. In the past, Kažimír repeatedly said that he is not guilty.
“The accusation that I allegedly bribed a senior official of the financial administration is an absolute lie,” he said.
The Code of Criminal Procedure states that a judge may issue a court order only if “the facts are reliably established by the evidence adduced.”
High-level corruption has marred public life in Slovakia for a long time. Many current cases are connected to the rule of Robert Fico. Kažimír is Fico’s government’s highest-ranking sentenced official.
Fico and his right hand – former Interior Minister Róbert Kaliňák were also charged with corruption. Still, General Prosecutor Maroš Žilinka cancelled the charges in December using the controversial paragraph 363 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which gives him the right to cancel the decisions of prosecutors or police.
This is not an unusual move for Žilinka in cases involving Smer-SD officials. Last year in June did the same for Kažimír in the same cases. However, the National Criminal Agency charged Kažimír again last November. (Michal Hudec | EURACTIV.sk)
Source: euractiv.com
