Kubina: Prosecutor Drops Charges against Former NAKA Officers in Curilla Group

Bratislava, 6 October (TASR) - A prosecutor from the Bratislava Region Prosecutor's Office has dropped charges of abuse of power by a public official and obstruction of justice against former officers of the now-dissolved National Crime Agency (NAKA) Branislav Duncko and Robert Magula, known to be part of the so-called 'Curilla group', their lawyer Peter Kubina announced on social media on Monday, adding that the prosecutor's decision is final. According to the prosecutor's resolution, the assertion that they lied to judges is merely an assumption made by an investigator from the Veritas team of the Internal Affairs Inspectorate (UIS), which contradicts the contents of the case file. "Requests for the approval of wiretaps met all legal requirements, and their content was based on the relevant case file. This was neither an abuse of power nor an obstruction of justice," explained Kubina. He said that the prosecutor also confirmed that if Magula and Duncko were to be prosecuted for such conduct, their two superiors who had signed the respective requests would have to face prosecution as well. In June, an UIS investigator charged the former operatives with abuse of power by a public official and obstruction of justice, stating that they had allegedly requested wiretapping on the basis of false information in 2019. "They allegedly misled a judge of Bratislava Region Court and provided unsubstantiated information and reasons for wiretapping. Subsequently, the wiretaps were actually carried out based on this information. The case was linked to a well-known organised crime group from western Slovakia," stated UIS, adding that the accused allegedly committed the offences as public officials while with NAKA. If they had been found guilty, they would have faced prison sentences ranging from three to twelve years. jrg/df