BRATISLAVA, May 24, (SITA) — According to director of the General Prosecutor’s Office for Special Operations Peter Sufliarsky, this Monday three drug dealers were released from pretrial custody as the District Court Bratislava 1 did not act when it should have. “The court did not act. The senate chairman released them. We got this information thanks to good relations we have with the correctional service by telephone. The three are members of a criminal group. This is a serious mistake. If the court wanted to release them, it should have done so after the accused were interrogated in the presence of a prosecutor. Without consent, the judge is not allowed to release the accused from custody. The work of the prosecutor was thus thwarted. They [the prosecution] were denied the possibility of filing remedy,” said Sufliarsky at a press conference this Tuesday.
The three men were detained in 2009, carrying over seven kilograms of heroin worth more than two million euro. The court should now have extended their pretrial custody after penal action was filed.
Sufliarsky also said that both courts and the prosecution made mistakes in the case of alleged local Mafia boss Karol Mello, which led to his release. He admitted to procedural errors in the case, stating that he “openly admits that this was an error of the prosecution.” He also denied accusations that he is leaking information to the media. “The information come from another source. Next week, I’ll reveal it. You’ll see then who wants to investigate and who is merely doing their PR,” stated the prosecutor.