SaS Wants to Furnish UPN with Powers to Challenge Settlements Over Archives (2)

Bratislava, October 24 (TASR) - Lawmakers of opposition's SaS propose to grant the Nation's Memory Institute (UPN) an option to challenge via the Prosecutor-General any so-called court settlement that concerns documents in UPN archives, TASR learnt on Thursday. The motion comes as SaS' response to a settlement concluded between the Slovak Interior Ministry and former Czech prime minister Andrej Babis regarding the dispute over the fact that Babis is listed in UPN archive documents as an agent of the communist era secret service (StB). At a press conference held in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic, 'Slovakia' chair Igor Matovic called on Babis to apologise to the people who were persecuted by the StB over their political opinions or religious beliefs. SaS submitted its bill on Thursday and wants Parliament to deliberate on it as early as at its current session. "We're filing a motion to furnish the UPN with an option via the Prosecutor-General to challenge such a court settlement and return the entire matter to the courts where it belongs and where the only arbiter should be an independent and unbiased court," stated Maria Kolikova (SaS). The MP also urged Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka to investigate whether Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) hasn't committed a misuse of a public official's powers by striking such a deal with Babis. "It seems that the Interior Minister acted with a conflict of interest, seeing as Andrej Babis had supported Voice-SD's presidential candidate during campaigning and subsequently the Interior Ministry, headed by the Voice-SD nominee, concluded such an unprecedented settlement deal," said Kolikova about Babis' support for Peter Pellegrini's bid during the 2024 presidential race. MP Juraj Krupa (SaS) added that the issue should be discussed also by the House Security and Defence Comittee at its extraordinary session slated for Tuesday (October 29). According to Matovic, the Slovak Government closed a "vile deal" with Babis by declaring that Babis has never been an StB agent. "The only one entitled under the law to decide in Slovakia whether or not someone was an StB agent is the Nation's Memory Institute (UPN). And the UPN unequivocally possesses evidence proving that there was Agent Bures [Babis' cover name in the UPN archival documents - ed.note]," said Matovic. MP Michal Sipos ('Slovakia'-For the People-KU) perceives the settlement of the dispute a "dirty deal" and pointed to Babis' support of Robert Fico (Smer-SD) in the Slovak 2023 parliamentary election and Peter Pellegrini in the presidential election. "In reality, it's nothing but the settling of a debt," he added. mf/mcs