As of 1 June the National Security Bureau (NBU) will be run by former head of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) Jozef Magala, after his nomination was endorsed by parliament yesterday.
Magala was appointed to the key post for a seven-year term of office, taking the place of current NBU head Frantisek Blanarik, after receiving the support of 87 MPs in a secret ballot.
Magala’s testimony in the so-called Gorilla affair would be crucial as he led the SIS at the time of the alleged Gorilla recordings. It is unclear whether this is possible, though, as some legal experts say the law does not deal with this kind of situation, and so Magala may keep his knowledge to himself, also as the President refused to lift his oath of secrecy.
Former justice minister and candidate for head of the opposition SDKU party, Lucia Zitnanska, therefore called on parliament to get Magala to speak about the Gorilla affair and explain why the monitoring of crony ties between politicians and a financial group was suddenly halted after he took over SIS. She says MPs should be the first to know what exactly happened after Magala took up the post in 2006. Her motion was rejected by the Smer-SD majority parliament, however.