The Sunday Times April 24, 2022 17WORLD NEWS
During two terms as prime minister,
Robert Fico turned Slovakia into his own
personal fiefdom.
Persistent allegations of corruption
and criminal ties failed to loosen the
populist leader’s grip on the country that
he ran for ten of the 12 years from 2006 to
2018, when huge street protests triggered
by the murder of an investigative journal-
ist finally forced his resignation.
Then last week came an extraordinary
postscript: investigators in Bratislava, the
Slovakian capital, fingered him as a mob
boss who formed and ran an organised
crime group during his time in office.
The charges, announced last Wednes-
day, are the most eye-catching step yet in
an ambitious attempt to tear down the
“mafia state” that Fico, 57, allegedly built
during his political dominance of the
small European Union country.
The National Crime Agency (Naka) —
Slovakia’s special police unit for fighting
corruption and organised crime —
claimed that during his second term of
office Fico founded and led a “criminal
organisation” that used the police and
tax authorities to attack political rivals.
Numerous judges, prosecutors, police
officers, politicians and oligarchs have
been arrested. Maria Kolikova, the justice
minister, told The Sunday Times that it
had been “only a matter of time” before
the drive to hold the former regime to
account reached the top. “I trust that the
case will continue to criminal proceed-
ings and then be brought to trial and guilt
proved in court,” she added.
Fico, who has been ordered to attend a
police interrogation on April 26, remains
an MP and parliament’s consent is
needed before he can be detained. It is
expected to be forthcoming.
Robert Kalinak, a former interior min-
ister, and a lawyer, Marek Para, both of
whom provide legal counsel for Fico’s
nominally left-leaning opposition party
Smer, were arrested the same day. All the
suspects reportedly face a sentence of upto 12 years if convicted. Fico survived
numerous corruption scandals during
office. However, this is the first time that
he has faced charges.
Since leaving office he has remained in
the public eye, leading protests against
government pandemic restrictions and
vaccinations — which led to an arrest in
December — and flirting with radical-
right parties.
He has also condemned Bratislava for
sending weapons to Kyiv to fight Russia
and compared Nato forces with Nazis.
He has long insisted that the claims of
corruption and criminality are part of a
political plot. Responding to the charges,
he accused the government of using “fas-
cist methods” to bring him down.
Wary of such claims, the prime minis-
ter, Eduard Heger, has tried to keep the
case at arm’s length. He expressed hope
that the accusations against Fico were
backed by strong evidence and stressed
that the law enforcement authorities
were acting autonomously.
“This is a huge test,” Andrej Matisak, a
senior editor at Pravda, one of Slovakia’s
leading daily newspapers, told The Sun-
day Times. “The process must be fully
fair to prove that the government is deliv-
ering a renewed justice system and the
rule of law.”
A conviction could help restore Slova-
kia’s faith in democracy, analysts said. “If
the allegations are confirmed then it will
be possible to speak of a cleansing of pub-
lic life,” Juraj Marusiak, of the Institute of
Political Science in Bratislava, said.
Yet there is also concern that the char-
ges could revive Fico politically. Polls
suggest Smer, his party, is polling second
with support of about 15 per cent. “It’s
going to be a long and nasty process and
will put Fico back in the spotlight,”
Matisak said. “If the case isn’t watertight
it will lend credence to his claims that the
clean-up is just a political plot, and could
resurrect his fortunes. He still has people
in the judiciary, police and security servi-
ces he can use to fight back.”
Fico’s years in office were blighted byTim Gosling Pragueapartment. For reasons that were
unclear he also hired Maria Troskova, a
former model and Miss Universe contest-
ant with no obvious qualifications for the
job, to work in his office.
It was while delving into their mysteri-
ous connection that the investigative
journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée were
shot dead one evening in February 2018.
The hit appeared to have been conducted
by professionals.
Kuciak had identified an Italian former
business partner of Troskova as a mem-
ber of ’Ndrangheta, one of the world’s
most powerful crime organisations.
The public revulsion at the double
murder proved too much even for Slova-He hired a Miss
Universe model
to work for himclaims of corruption, abuse of office and
criminality. Smer’s ties to the country’s
oligarchs were public knowledge. Cor-
ruption linked to EU and public funds
was believed to be rife.
Fico, an imposing and aggressive
political figure, grew increasingly abu-
sive of opponents and journalists as his
grip on power tightened. He introduced
laws restricting the freedom of the press,
which he describes as “dirty anti-Slovak
prostitutes”, and deployed anti-Islamic
and anti-democratic rhetoric to shore up
support with his base.
He enjoyed an opulent lifestyle as
prime minister, flashing expensive
watches and living in a marble-flooredFico offered a million euros to
help find the reporter’s killerSlovakia’s ‘mob boss’ former PM
made a mafia state of his country
Robert Fico, ousted over a journalist’s
murder, is facing corruption charges at lastVLADIMIR SIMICEK, JOE KLAMAR/AFP/GETTY IMAGESkia’s strongman. Less than three weeks
later Fico resigned after mass protests.
Then in 2020 a four-party coalition,
led by the centre-right Olano and running
on an anti-corruption platform, defeated
Smer at elections.
The drive to dismantle Fico’s “mafia
state” — a term popularised by the liberal
protest movement For a Decent Slovakia
— began. Charges levelled against officials
include leaking information to organised
crime, sabotage, and embezzlement.
Naka said the former police chief Tibor
Gaspar, who was arrested last year, and
the oligarch Norbert Bodor are suspected
to have been part of Fico’s conspiracy.
Few of the most powerful figuresarrested have been convicted, provoking
suspicion that criminal networks con-
tinue to infiltrate the system.
Prosecutors failed to secure the con-
viction of Marian Kocner, the oligarch
accused of ordering the Kuciak assassina-
tion, even though one of the other
defendants in the case testified that
Kocner ordered the hit. A retrial is under
way. Para, the lawyer charged alongside
Fico, defended Kocner.
“The political confrontation in Slova-
kia has become so escalated that a large
part of society will see the case as a step
towards the liquidation of the opposi-
tion,” Marusiak warned, “and that will
help further weaken faith in democracy.”