Those were only the most recent in a series of controversial decisions which analysts highlighted as signs that the country is backsliding on efforts to fight organized crime and corruption under Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Fico previously served as prime minister from 2012 to 2018, when he resigned following mass protests over the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová. Kuciak had been investigating links between organized crime and Slovak politicians.
Fico returned to power after his Smer-SD party won enough votes to form a coalition government in October 2023. Since then, his government has passed a controversial reform of Penal Code lowering sentences for corruption and abolished the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
The government confirmed on Wednesday that it would move forward with a plan to dissolve the National Crime Agency (NAKA), an elite police unit tasked with investigating serious crimes, including political corruption.
“What is happening in Slovakia is alarming,” said Anton Spisak of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank, in a post on X.
“This is just the latest move in the Fico government's systematic assault on Slovakia's democratic and state institutions,” he said.
Many Slovaks had high hopes for reform after the 2018 protests forced Fico out of office. Law enforcement agencies launched a crackdown on crime and corruption, arresting more than 130 people connected to Fico’s ousted administration.
More than 40 people have since been convicted, including former special prosecutor Dušan Kováčik, who was released Thursday by Justice Minister Boris Susko.
Kováčik had headed the Office of the Special Prosecutor, but was convicted for leaking information to an organized crime group, and accepting a 50,000-euro bribe in exchange for ensuring its leader would not be taken into custody.
In a video posted to Facebook, Susko said “the previous government was sending the political competition to the prison” through “politicized trials.” He said he decided to free Kováčik, who was two years into an eight-year sentence, due to “discrepancies” in his case.
Susko did not clarify the alleged discrepancies, and the Ministry of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
Michal Piško of Transparency International told the Investigative Center of Jan Kuciak (ICJK), OCCRP’s Slovak media partner, that government decisions show that the Fico administration is attempting to “ensure impunity for its people.”
Just days after taking power last fall, the government suspended two NAKA officers, who were probing alleged corruption. The Ministry of Interior has accused them of abuse of power, along with the agency’s former director who quit under pressure from authorities.
Andrea Dobiášová, a ministry spokesperson, said the officers face up to 12 years in prison, adding that she could not provide further information “due to the ongoing procedural actions.”
Also accused is Michal Šúrek, who was with the now-abolished Office of the Special Prosecutor and oversaw the case against Kováčik, as well as Pavol Gašpar, a former president of the police who is now a Smer-SD parliamentarian.
Gašpar is facing charges of creating and leading an organized criminal group inside Slovakia’s law enforcement apparatus during the previous Fico government.
"Michal Šúrek is unjustifiably being prosecuted for something that can at most be an improper official procedure, without the intention of causing damage or benefiting anyone,” former prosecutor Matúš Harkabus told ICJK.
Katarína Batková, a lawyer with the legal advocacy group Via Luris, said the government is undermining faith in the justice system with its attempts to clear the names of its allies, while targeting those investigating corruption.
Those actions “will mean a complete loss of confidence of the people of Slovakia in the idea that the laws apply equally to everyone,” Batková said.
