PS Calls on Sutaj Estok to Release All Information about Traffic Cameras (2)

Bratislava, 12 August (TASR) - The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party has called on Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) to release all information at his disposal about traffic radar cameras, adding that if he fails to do so, PS representatives will publish it themselves. According to PS, the cameras don't merely contain Russian components but are Russian-made and capable of much more than measuring speed. Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, PS security adviser Peter Bator and MP Jaroslav Spisiak (PS) called on minister Sutaj Estok to resign. "You also know very well, minister, and this is part of the information at your disposal, that these cameras aren't just ordinary cameras," said Bator. Asked by journalists what he meant by that, he said that he would leave it to the interior minister to explain. If the minister fails to do so, PS will provide an explanation within several days. Bator also noted that the cameras were operating and recording people even during their trail run. If they were to be tested as part of a system for detecting road traffic violations, they had to be connected to it. "For the system to be tested, it had to have data; for example, to identify some vehicles. That means that these didn't have to be live databases, but databases copied into the system, and the cameras had access," he warned, adding that the minister is trying to evade responsibility. Bator also criticised Slovakia's intelligence services, which, he said, should have prevented the cameras from being deployed, but failed to do so. He said that none of them appeared concerned that a person who had worked in Moscow for 15 years had brought in Russian cameras, but he didn't specify to whom he was referring. "In the end, it's the National Security Authority (NBU) that takes a screwdriver, dismantles it and discovers that we have a problem, which the interior minister then presents as a new finding. So, where are the services? Where is military intelligence, and, above all, where is the Slovak Information Service?" asked Bator. He pointed out that it took NBU two days to identify the origin of the cameras. In his view, the Interior Ministry should have done so much earlier. Spisiak said that the party had originally planned to file a criminal complaint, but Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka had since ordered an investigation into the entire case. "Day by day, more and more suspicions are emerging, so we'll proceed as should be the case in an objective criminal investigation. We'll contact the prosecutor-general and provide the information we have," he said. Spisiak also pointed out that everyone, including the interior minister, has a duty to inform the law-enforcement authorities of any information they have concerning the case. Bator didn't rule out filing a criminal complaint. Veronika Remisova, who chairs the opposition For the People party, also called for the interior minister to leave office. "Sutaj Estok is harming Slovakia, not only through unlawful conduct and the dismantling of the police, but also by endangering security in the case of the cameras, which the National Security Authority identified as a risk and which showed the interior minister to be guilty not only of incompetence but also of endangering our security," she underlined. The non-parliamentary Democrats party takes a similar view. "The tenure of Matus Sutaj Estok as interior minister has become a security risk for the Slovak Republic. This is no longer merely political incompetence, but bungling and amateurism at a ministry whose task is to protect the security of the state. We therefore demand his removal from the post of interior minister," said party vice-chair Juraj Seliga. The Slovakia party and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) are also calling for the minister's resignation. The Christian Democratic Movement is demanding a security audit at the ministry. Earlier in the day, Sutaj Estok reported on an analysis by the National Security Authority (NBU) of traffic radar cameras that were intended to be used when testing a system for detecting road traffic violations. According to him, the analysis confirmed that the cameras contain Russian components and warned that the cameras could pose a security risk if deployed in live operation. He also confirmed that Soitron, the company that supplied the cameras in question, will no longer be involved in the project. NOTE: This story has been extended to include the final four paragraphs mf/df