BRATISLAVA, January 20, (WEBNOVINY) — In its second official communication to the corruption scandal that is evolving from the secret service file of an operation codenamed Gorila, spokesman for the financial group Penta Martin Danko said on Thursday evening that it was striking that Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic (KDH) was interfering in the police investigation into the case almost every day, although he is not a law enforcement authority but is a political nominee in the post of Interior Minister. Danko was responding to Thursday’s press conference of Lipsic, at which he confirmed that Gorila was a genuine and legitimate operation of the intelligence service that really took place in 2005 and 2006.
In his previous statements for the media, Danko described the file as a document prepared in Hollywood style, which has to include good spies, big money, senior political representatives and even sex. He said the file was nonsense and that he would not comment on tabloid news.
In his statement from Thursday evening, Danko said that „on the one hand we are appalled that the Interior Minister informs daily, not about specific conclusions, but about certain procedures and knowledge from the investigation, that he is doing this and not a law enforcement authority, which he is not. He is a political nominee serving in the post of Interior Minister, “ said Danko. Penta therefore considers this to be evidence of almost daily political interference into the course of the investigation. „For us it is completely irrelevant whether the file existed or not, but rather who and how created the file. For us it is essential what the file contains and there we fundamentally and categorically maintain that these materials are misconstrued, they are fiction, gross manipulation of facts that either did not happen or happened completely differently as described,“ said Danko. He further pointed out that the investigation should not focus on cheap sensationalism.
The secret service documents of an operation codenamed Gorila describe how political nominees were appointed to manage state-run companies, how kickbacks were distributed from privatization, and the web of relations between politicians, tycoons and security services in the period 2005-2006.
On January 9, Interior Minister Lipsic established a specialized police team that is investigating circumstances of the case. The team is composed of ten top criminal investigators from the Office for Combating Organized Crime, the Office for Combating Corruption and from the Police Inspection Office. Lipsic further informed that the criminal prosecution will be supervised by the Special Prosecution Office, which has the required legal qualifications and they cannot be removed from the case by another law enforcement body or the prosecution office, which he considers very important for successful investigation of the case.
SITA