Opposition Skeptical About SIS Report on May 15 Assassination Attempt

Bratislava, October 16 (TASR) - The opposition harbours concerns about the trustworthiness of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) report on the May 15 assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD), TASR learnt on Wednesday. "As for the situation surrounding the report drafted by SIS allegedly at the behest of the Prime Minister, it only inspires growing mistrust. It is the police who are supposed to investigate. We should learn the conclusions from the police and prosecutor's office. The secret service, of course, is free to draft its own stances or its own analysis, but the way this looks, and I hope I'm wrong, is that the Prime Minister ordered material from the secret service, which he plans to misuse against the opposition," stated Progressive Slovakia (PS) chair Michal Simecka. He also pointed to chaos surrounding the contradictory news as to who has ordered the report. This view was echoed by the Christian Democrats (KDH), who also don't expect the report to be balanced and free of disinformation or fabrications. KDH pointed out that SIS answers directly to the Prime Minister, who is an aggrieved party in this case, and underlined that the job of investigating and collecting evidence relevant for criminal prosecution can be carried out only by the prosecutor's office. "KDH acknowledges the information that SIS will submit to Parliament a report on the investigation of the assassination attempt. However, due to the character, nature and trustworthiness of the sources, with which SIS works, the party expects that Parliament will be addressed also by the Prosecutor-General, who will apprise lawmakers of relevant facts and evidence," said KDH. In this context, 'Slovakia' party talked about a scandal and misuse of the SIS, calling on the Prime Minister to "stop his intelligence intrigues". MP Veronika Remisova ('Slovakia'-KU-For the People) warned on Tuesday that there's a growing amount of indications that the assassination attempt is to be grossly misused by the governing power and pointed out that the public still lacks information about what really happened. "If instead of findings acquired by an independent and unbiased court, the public will receive a fairy tale from Gaspar's secret service, what are this country's legal institutions, courts and the prosecutor's office for?" she asked. mf/mcs