Sakova: Police Again Under Huge Media Pressure

Banska Bystrica, November 13 (TASR) - The police are once again under enormous media pressure, Interior Minister Denisa Sakova (Smer-SD) stated at a briefing in Banska Bystrica on Tuesday in response to the news reported by the media that the National Crime Agency (NAKA) is investigating an anonymous criminal complaint concerning potentially corrupt activities lodged against the organisers of the For a Decent Slovakia rallies. "As the interior minister, I have never intervened in any investigation, and this will also apply to this case. I acknowledge my responsibility, I require that all my colleagues do the work on the basis of and in line with the law," said Sakova, adding that the police must not be the subject of politics. The interior minister went on to say that the police is obliged to examine every criminal complaint regardless of its submitter. "I trust the law enforcement authorities, as with their work they have proven that they're working on a highly professional level," she said. Police Corps President Milan Lucansky noted at the briefing that he learnt about this information on Tuesday from the media and contacted the investigator to clarify certain facts. He said that the anonymous filing was addressed directly to the NAKA boss and he then assigned it to the anti-corruption unit after evaluating it. By interrogating the organisers, or by providing an explanation, and according to Lucansky also in the presence of lawyers, the investigator sought to obtain information necessary to proceed further, either to reject the motion or to bring charges against a particular person. "Everything happens in a standard way, in line with the law. As a police president, I won't interfere with it. There is a supervising prosecutor. We're following a standard procedure as always in other cases," added Lucansky. In recent days NAKA has summoned a number of For a Decent Slovakia organisers for interrogation, with another group scheduled to be questioned on Thursday (November 15). According to Dennik N, the anonymous criminal complaint alleges that they were orchestrating a state coup and are financed by American investor with Hungarian roots George Soros. tz/am/mcs