Opposition MPs: Coalition MPs Tried to Influence Police at Defence Committee

Bratislava, March 3 (TASR) - Some MPs from the coalition parties tried to influence police officers at the parliamentary committee on defence and security session in connection with the investigation into the donation of military equipment to Ukraine, opposition MPs concurred after the committee meeting on Monday. Committee vice-chair Gabor Grendel ('Slovakia', 'For the People', KU) also claimed that he noticed pressure from coalition MP Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) on the investigation team at the committee. "I won't go into full details, but it was via lecturing about how many and what members the investigation team should have, how quickly it should act, why other criminal prosecutions haven't already been initiated, and so on. It looked like a meeting of the police president, not a meeting of the defence committee, so it was totally inappropriate," said Grendel, calling on the Police Corps leadership to keep the investigation team free from political pressure. Opposition MP Juraj Krupa (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS) also believes that the coalition is trying to cover up other issues. "The priority goal is to cover up, to create a case and again to deal with something other than what is essential," he stated, adding that he also supports the Police Corps and the investigators who are dealing with the donation of military equipment. "From the side of some coalition leaders there was explicitly created pressure on the head of the Office for the Fight against Organised Crime and on the acting police president - when they should start, with whom they should start, when they should investigate, whom they should investigate and how they should charge them," added Krupa. Independent MP Lubomir Galko said that the coalition was trying to divert attention by raising the issue of the donation of equipment to Ukraine. "The donation of the equipment was moral, correct, in accordance with the law. I'm sure that the Supreme Audit Office didn't have all the documents from the Defence Ministry that it should have had, that it based things only on the information it received," said Galko, adding that he also noticed pressure from coalition MPs on the police and investigators at the committee. The Office for Combating Organised Crime (UBOK) set up a special investigation team called Donor in November last year. It was prompted by a report by the National Audit Office, which in its findings stated that Slovakia had donated military property worth almost €700 million to Ukraine since the outbreak of the military conflict. The audit revealed discrepancies in data on donated assets reported by the Defence Ministry and the General Staff. It also found a discrepancy between aid agreed by the government and the value of the assets eventually donated to Ukraine. am/df