Specialised Criminal Court Acquits Ex-judge Pavol P. of Corruption Charges

Pezinok/Bratislava, April 17 (TASR) - The Specialised Criminal Court has acquitted former judge Pavol P. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons], who was prosecuted for the crime of indirect corruption, TASR learnt on Thursday. According to the judge, it was not proven that the alleged deed was committed. The court's decision is not yet final, as the prosecutor filed an appeal against Thursday's verdict, and so the Supreme Court will have the final say. The decisive factor in the judge's view was that the credibility of the testimony of witness Frantisek Toth, nicknamed 'Big Fero', was in question "to such an extent that it raised serious doubts about the facts stated by witness Toth regarding the actions of the accused," she said. Despite acquitting the accused, the court at the same time has no doubts that the Regional Court in Zilina was affected by a corrupt working environment. Prosecutor of the Prosecutor-General's Office Rastislav Hruska filed an appeal against the verdict because he believes that there is evidence proving Pavol P.'s guilt. According to him, witness Toth is credible. "He's a person who took responsibility for his past and has come clean," the prosecutor added. According to the indictment, Pavol P., while still a judge of the Regional Court in Zilina in 2015, allegedly accepted a promise of a bribe in exchange for influencing another judge's decision. However, he ultimately did not carry this out. Pavol P. emphasised his innocence at the beginning of the trial. The former judge had already previously been lawfully convicted of accepting bribes in another case based on a plea bargain. He received a three-year suspended sentence with a five-year probation period and a fine of €150,000. Back then Pavol P. confessed and expressed remorse for his actions. Later, however, he claimed that the plea bargain was extorted from him under pressure, was false and that he was innocent. The former judge was detained in September 2020 during a police operation codenamed Weed. mf/df