Justice Ministry Views PG's Statements on Fighting Corruption as Politicisation

Bratislava, 4 February (TASR) - The Justice Ministry considers Wednesday's press conference by Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka to be simplistic and politicising an extremely sensitive issue of the fight against corruption, Alexandra Szakalova of the ministry's press department told TASR, adding that the data presented by Zilinka doesn't correspond to the data available to the Police Corps and the investigators themselves. "These are different inputs and different ranges of cases monitored. It isn't possible to draw automatic and categorical conclusions from such figures, as the prosecutor-general has publicly presented today," she said. According to the Justice Ministry, the data presented by Zilinka doesn't answer fundamental questions about whether this is a consequence of changes in criminal policy, a lack of evidence, personnel capacity, court decisions, or a correction of past excesses. "Numbers taken out of context don't reflect the quality or effectiveness of the fight against corruption," it stressed. The ministry also rejects the manner in which this issue was communicated, pointing out that public statements made at press conferences are not a tool for coordinating institutions, especially when it comes to fighting corruption. According to the ministry, such an approach, instead of professional cooperation, creates tension, undermines trust in the state, and turns an expert issue into a political conflict. The Justice Ministry also stated that the criticism of criminal penalties by the prosecutor-general was grossly misleading, explaining that criminal penalties primarily have a preventive and repressive effect and are not directly linked to the effectiveness of criminal prosecution. "Modern criminology confirms that the likelihood of detection and the speed of punishment are more decisive for offenders than the severity of the sanction itself," it emphasised. The rate of prosecution of corruption in Slovakia has fallen significantly, stated the prosecutor-general at a press conference earlier on Wednesday, adding that not a single corruption offence was uncovered at the highest levels of the state in 2025. This was one of the topics discussed at this week's meeting between Zilinka and Fico. The prime minister expressed his disagreement with the opinion of the Prosecutor-General's Office on the assessment of the fight against corruption in the prepared report on the state of the rule of law. The head of the prosecution service also criticised changes in the Criminal Code and the reorganisation of the Police Corps. am