BRATISLAVA, August 5, (WEBNOVINY) – The Defense Minister Lubomir Galko (SaS) has suspended the head of the Slovak Military Intelligence Service Milan Hudec after intelligence services warned him about the irregularities in Hudec´s security clearance. Some documents regarding his security clearance could have been issued before they were requested, and it is possible that they were manipulated, Galko suggested. The Minister ordered new security clearance to Hudec, until then Hudec will be a non-classified soldier in reserve.
Galko did not rule out that the repeated clearance will not prove the mistake on Hudec’s side, and he will appoint him again. New clearance will be supervised by a commission. „I will not rush the termination of security clearance. It has to be done properly; this is not a question of few days,” Galko said. Hudec was appointed to the post on July 28, and recalled on August 2 which was the same day he received the information about the dubiousness of the clearance.
The chairman of the opposition party SMER-SD and former PM Robert Fico was shocked by the situation in the Slovak Military Intelligence Service. Slovakia is allegedly a witness of gross violations of laws which endangers the entire security system and causes a serious disruption of credibility as a NATO member state. „This man [Hudec] walked around the Slovak Military Intelligence Service for a week and familiarized himself with secret information,“ Fico criticizes. The General Prosecutor’s Office is already dealing with the scandal, according to Fico.
Fico initiates the convention of Special Supervisory Parliamentary Committee overseeing Military Intelligence Service and did not rule out further political action. He challenged Prime Minister Iveta Radicova (SDKU-DS) to clarify her position regarding this affair. “The scandal of policeman who failed in the training of a sniffer dog, which has been discussed for weeks in Slovakia, is innocent children entertainment compared to what the Defense Minister Galko has presented in the appointment of military intelligence service [boss],“ Fico said.
SITA