Fico Supports Recent Amendment to Penal Codes, Questions Witness Slobodnik (2)

Bratislava, 28 January (TASR) - Prime Minister and Smer-SD leader Robert Fico supports the amendment to the penal codes as of December 2025, pointing out that the legislative changes include, among other things, a provision stating that if a cooperating defendant has lied about essential circumstances, their testimony can no longer be used in other proceedings. At a press conference on Wednesday, Fico also questioned the credibility of Bernard Slobodnik, a key witness in several criminal proceedings. The premier spoke about the courage of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) in the spring of 2021, which, according to him, reported, among other things, on the abuse of criminal law in the fight against the political opposition. According to him, there are cooperating defendants who are prepared to say anything to avoid prosecution for other crimes that they've committed. "We have the testimony of one of the most famous Slovak cooperating defendants - informers. I'm talking about Mr. Slobodnik, who was prepared to talk about anything just to avoid prosecution," he claimed. According to Fico, Slobodnik allegedly testified in January 2026 that in May 2021 he was presented with several witness interrogation transcripts, which he didn't read and only signed. "These transcripts were then used in criminal proceedings, primarily against representatives of the [then] political opposition," said the prime minister, adding that specific investigators grossly violated the law between 2020-2023. Member of the premier's board of advisors Marek Para pointed to the minutes of Slobodnik's interrogation on 1 June 2021, which were circulated among police officers and weren't signed by the witness. At a press conference, Para appealed to law-enforcement bodies and the Prosecutor-General's Office to "devote more energy to investigating these practices, which led to illegal criminal prosecutions and criminal prosecutions in custody, and to the defamation of the Smer party". According to Parliamentary Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD), the current opposition is calling for the return of the system of criminalising selected individuals. He supports the amendment to the criminal law adopted by Parliament in December 2025. "You can say what you want about whether it benefits certain individuals. None of you would like to be convicted on the basis of a single piece of evidence, namely a lying cooperating defendant," he emphasised. However, according to him, the system of cooperating individuals needs to be "overhauled" even further. Vice-premier and Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) stated that no one is obliged to tolerate unlawfulness. According to him, the cooperating defendant in cooperation with the police officers known as the 'Curilla group' was not only convicting a perpetrator, which is standard practice, but was also inventing a crime. "There were no traces or evidence that a crime had been committed, but the cooperating defendant delivered them via his testimony," added Kalinak. NOTE: This story has been extended to include the final three paragraphs. am/df