SaS Seeks Interior Minister's Dismissal Over Prosecution of Officers (2)

Bratislava, 26 March (TASR) – The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is collecting signatures to submit a motion to dismiss Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) from office and wants the proposal to be voted on at the next session of Parliament, party representatives announced at a press conference on Thursday. They defended the motion by citing several alleged scandals involving the minister and what they describe as his misuse of office; for example, by taking revenge on a group of police officers centered around Jan Curilla who investigated high-profile corruption cases in the past. In addition, they claim that the minister has dismantled and weakened the Police Corps. MP Juraj Krupa (SaS) also criticised Sutaj Estok over the so-called 'caps case', pointing out that caps the Interior Ministry planned to purchase were twice as expensive as military ones. "This is consolidation in the style of Matus Sutaj Estok, who has essentially completely dismantled and weakened the Police Corps. We don't even need to mention the National Criminal Agency (NAKA), which he's abolished. Since then, it's as if corruption no longer exists; it's no longer investigated," said Krupa. Former police president and SaS associate Stefan Hamran alleged that Sutaj Estok has tasked the Internal Affairs Inspectorate with deliberately prosecuting the group of officers around Curilla and seeking compromising material to use against them. According to Hamran, the evidence has been provided by the minister's former party colleagues. "These are the very practices of which my colleagues around Jan C., investigators, operatives and honest police officers, have been accused of for at least four years. Courts and prosecutors have confirmed that my colleagues did nothing wrong. I am truly curious to see when these aforementioned dirty practices will one day be investigated with the same level of seriousness," added Hamran. In response, the Internal Affairs Inspectorate pointed to a statement by Veritas team head Juraj Lukac that neither the investigator nor his team act based on political statements or media commentary. "We are procedurally independent, without any influence from superiors, the Interior Ministry or politicians. The investigator and my team act on the basis of evidence and the law, and we fully stand behind the investigator's decisions," said Lukac last week. The Voice-SD party told TASR that it saw no need to comment on MP Jan Ferencak (Independent), who is no longer a member of the party and whose statements SaS representatives referred to on Thursday. "It is up to him how he deals with the doubts surrounding him and, above all, how he explains them. The police act independently and not on political orders as under the previous government," said Voice-SD spokesperson Michaela Eliasova. NOTE: This story has been extended to include the final two paragraphs mf/df