UOO Reaffirms €90,000 Fine for Interior Ministry Over Police Suspensions

Bratislava, October 25 (TASR) - As part of the process of appeal, the Office for Protection of Whistleblowers (UOO) has confirmed that the Interior Ministry violated the law when it didn't consult UOO before suspending ten police officers centered around Jan Curilla who had the status of protected whistleblowers, TASR was told Alexandra Znasikova of the UOO press department on Friday. It was the Dennik N daily that broke the news first. "The subject of these proceedings was not an evaluation of whether or not the decision to suspend the police officers constituted an act of vengeance [the police officers had been investigating corruption cases involving political nominees -ed. note]. That would have been assessed in the next proceedings to follow, had the ministry asked for the office's permission as the law stipulates," said Znasikova. Shortly after taking over the Interior Ministry, Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) suspended the police officers due to charges pressed against them, despite the fact that they have the status of protected whistleblowers. In an initial administrative proceedings, UOO decided that the Interior Ministry violated the law and imposed a fine of €90,000. The ministry appealed against the decision, claiming that UOO applied an incorrect legal assessment of the matter. mf/df