NBS Governor Appeals against Guilty Verdict in Bribery Case

Bratislava, 18 September (TASR) – Former finance minister (2012-19) and incumbent Slovak central bank (NBS) governor Peter K. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons] has filed an appeal against the verdict of the Specialised Criminal Court that found him guilty of bribery at the end of May, his legal team announced at a press conference on Thursday. The appeal, submitted on 27 August, seeks to overturn the conviction. Peter K. maintains that the entire process was unlawful and insists that he committed no criminal offence. According to lawyer Ondrej Mularcik, the defence identified numerous errors and deficiencies in the ruling that could not be overlooked. He asserted that no criminal activity was proven on Peter K.'s part and criticised the court for allegedly adopting the prosecutor's narrative while disregarding the defence's arguments. Mularcik also reiterated his earlier claim that the injunction issued against the NBS governor was itself unlawful. He argued that Peter K.'s guilt was based solely on the testimony of a single witness, Frantisek Imrecze, the former head of Financial Administration (the tax office). Attorney Eva Sihelnikova added that the testimonies of witnesses in the case were inconsistent in several respects. Therefore, she argued, none of them should be considered credible or authentic in the way that Imrecze's testimony was accepted by the court and prosecution. Mularcik further criticised the court for failing to address the defence's proposed evidence. "The judge has never explained why he rejected our motions to present additional evidence, nor did he justify his legal reasoning or the grounds for his decisions," he said. He also argued that, under the amended Criminal Code, the charges should have been dropped due to new statutes of limitation. "The Specialised Criminal Court previously dropped other bribery cases because of statutes of limitation," noted Mularcik , adding that the court also ignored more lenient penalty ranges introduced by the revised law. He accused the court of acting deliberately to allow the prosecution to continue and to secure a conviction at the expense of respect for the law. According to the indictment, during his time as finance minister, Peter K. repeatedly pressured then-Financial Administration chief Frantisek Imrecze to oversee a preferential payout of VAT refunds totaling more than €3 million to several companies. In exchange, he allegedly gave Imrecze a bribe of €48,000. At the end of May, the Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok found Peter K. guilty of bribery and sentenced him to a €200,000 fine. If he fails to pay, he will face a substitute prison sentence of one year. mf/df