Former economy minister Pavol Rusko, who was the first to have charges brought against him as part of the Gorilla corruption allegations, has been let off the hook as the Special Prosecutor’s office threw the case off the table yesterday.
Rusko, who headed his liberal ANO party in parliament between 2002-2005, was being charged over the privatisation of combined cycle power plant PPC in 2004, which supposedly went to Penta investment group illegally and at below price (around EUR 70 million). Rusko has been charged with being partly liable for the suspect deal, which allegedly caused damages in the range of around EUR 42 million for Slovakia.
The prosecutor’s office referred to the case as illegal and unfounded as only the National Property Fund (FNM) had control over the privatisation and not the former economy minister. In response to the news, Rusko said that it just proves what he was saying all along, that the accusations were just deliberate attacks of the outgoing government. “I don’t even want to think about how I would have ended up if they had been successful. Simple, “if you are with us, we will stand by you, and if you are not, then we will sink you any way we can” he said.
Yes I know, but the male Slovaks would have to walk a lot better . You know, rather than the penguin walk, we would get the goose step . Other advantages, yes the trains would always run on time, the roads and paths would actually be swept of snow on the day, rather than the normal Slovak devised chaos for the week …and we could have lots of the B/W little warming sticks, beside the roads in the winter for snow warnings , rather that a old broom handle every 100 meters, with red painted on the top .
……and ooooouscottt sounds so much better than plain Dobre Den !
Austrians!!!!!!! Look what happened last time! Now the SK drive on the wrong side of the road!
As said previously, this would be a great country if it was run by anyone other than Slovaks …….Perhaps the EU should invite those nice Nazi Austrians in ?
So the selling off of state assets at knockdown prices is not the responsibility of the Minister of Finance? Who does the NPF report to? – don’t tell me – no-one. Somebody is responsible for this scam which has cost all SK tax payers Euro 42 million and that someone should go to jail.
It would appear that on top of the general immunity from presectution whilst serving as an MP, past officials also benefit from “get out of jail free cards” from the government appointed “Special Prosecutor” who must have the lumpiest carpet in the country.
I am totally bewildered by the SK legal system, justice can be interfered with by an ever expanding number of faceless, unaccountable persons, who don’t have to justify their decisions. The current system, like so many things in the SK, has taken a relativly simple procedure and made into a complicated job creation scheme for wasters and political cronies at every level.
If SK wants to rise in the international rankings with regards to justice and anti-corruption measures, the current legal system need to be dismantled and a more streamlined and accountable mechanism established. Trial by jury would be a good start, 12 decent citizens hear the evidence and arrive at a verdict – guilty or innocent, not a judge, panel of judges or the puppets of Trnka and Harabin. The police must be gutted, yet again good detective work has gone to the wall, no doubt to be swept under the carpet.