BRATISLAVA, February 3, (WEBNOVINY) – When some participants of the second Gorilla protest march in Bratislava this Friday already reached the building of the Cabinet Office other protesters at the tail were only moving from the SNP Square where the rally started. The protest of people angered by the Gorilla scandal is more massive than the first one a week ago. The organizers were expecting some ten thousand participants, yet the real number is probably higher. The peaceful march is monitored by the police. However, after the crowd reached the Cabinet Office demonstrators started throwing eggs, bananas, plastic bottles and various different objects, yelling and imitating the sounds of monkeys, at the building.
Earlier at the protest Tom Nicholson, a Canadian journalist living and working in Slovakia and the author of the yet not launched book about the Gorilla case spoke to the crowd. He said that in spite of the information brought by the media that the court has decided on halting the publishing of his book, he will try to find ways how to have it published. Nicholson did not receive any official information on the court’s preliminary injunction. As the crowd applauded, Nicholson told the people to remain peaceful and to try to change the situation.
According to Nicholson, these “good people” can fight the “evil” with voting in the March early election. In the case they do not know which party to support, they should at least cast a blank ballot paper. “It’s a quiet protest, but still more meaningful than to sit at home in front of the telly. Call it a blank ballot message: I’m here, I do care about what’s going on in this state and I’d like to help making it better,” said the journalist. He also thinks that our political system faces the largest legitimacy crisis since communist rule was brought down in 1989 while political parties lost all moral authority.
This week’s second round of Gorilla protests is a follow-up to protest which took place in Bratislava last Friday. Except of Bratislava, they also are also taking place in Kosice, Nitra, Zilina, Trencin, Presov and Zvolen.
Leaked intelligence service file code-named Gorilla documents alleged influence on Slovak politics by the Penta financial group. The material released on the Internet before Christmas describes appointments of political nominees in state-run companies, kickbacks for privatization and the web of relations between politicians, tycoons and security services in the period 2005-2006. Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic created a specialized team that investigates the case. On January 9, the investigator started criminal prosecution for the crime of establishing, preparing and supporting a criminal gang while the persons are mainly suspected of crimes of corruption and abuse of powers of a public official. The criminal prosecution is supervised by the Special Prosecution Office.
SITA