BRATISLAVA, March 23, (WEBNOVINY) — Charges of fraud filed against ex-Minister of Economy Pavol Rusko last week in connection with privatization of the steam-gas energy company Paroplynovy Cyklus (PPC) in 2004 have been withdrawn. A prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor’s Office annulled as unlawful and ungrounded the resolution of an investigator of a specialized team of the Office to Combat Organized Crime at the Police Corps Presidium.
The investigator charged Rusko with a criminal act he allegedly committed as economy minister [in the government of Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda – SITA note]. The revoked charges built on the assumption that Rusko misled the Cabinet by his misrepresented analysis of the privatization of Paroplynovy Cyklus in 2004, omitting sections on disadvantageousness of privatization of the steam-gas energy company. Rusko allegedly caused the National Property Fund damages of at least EUR 42 million in 2005-2006, according to original charges.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office underscored in its statement that only the responsible authority, the National Property Fund of the Slovak Republic as a legal, entity was entitled to execute the privatization of PPC based on government’s authorization. “Specified facts confirm that the defendant was not supposed to and could not participate in conclusion of a contract on the purchase of shares between the seller and buyer on March 4, 2004 and hence could not influence the volume of allegedly disadvantageous contract,” concluded the Special Prosecutor’s Office.
Rusko’s course of action at the Cabinet meeting when he repeatedly did not submit the original analysis on disadvantageousness of the privatization could thus not affect the supposedly disadvantageous contract on the sale of shares from March 4, 2004. “It is therefore indisputable that the so-far collected evidence does not confirm causality in defendant’s actions with inflicted consequences,” reasoned the Special Prosecutor’s Office.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office claims that the investigation has not reliably proven that Rusko’s action did amount to a alleged criminal offense. No specific evidence has been provided yet that would prove that Rusko’s actions facilitated or participated in any way in the conclusion of the privatization contract and caused the alleged damages.
The decision of the Special Prosecutor’s Office gave Rusko a great relief and satisfaction. “It only confirmed something that I felt for a long time, specifically that the General Prosecutor’s Office is the real guardian of lawfulness in Slovakia, not the politicized leadership of the Interior Ministry,” emphasized Rusko for SITA news agency.
SITA