Bratislava/Prague, Feb 6 (CTK) – The Slovak Supreme Court has rejected a petition for an appellate review of the previous verdict by lower courts, according to which Czech Finance Minister and ANO head Andrej Babis is unjustly listed as an agent of the former StB secret police, CTK learned yesterday.
Babis hailed the decision and said the case was trumped up by his enemies.
He said he expects those who accused him of cooperation with the communist StB to apologise to him.
The Supreme Court issued its verdict at the end of January. Its spokesman Boris Urbancik said the court will justify the verdict in its writing form.
The petition for an appellate review was filed by the Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute (UPN), which is an analogy of the Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes (USTR).
The UPN said the decisions made by a district and regional court were unlawful because the former StB members who testified in support of Babis were not released from the obligation to maintain confidentiality before they gave testimony.
No remedial measure can be applied against the verdict of the Supreme Court. It could only be examined by the Constitutional Court from the point of view of a possible breach of rights.
The UPN said earlier yesterday that the court proceeded in an unusual way when it asked the Slovak interior minister to additionally release the above members of the StB from the obligation to maintain confidentiality. The minister complied with the request.
“It is not usual that illegal evidence is recognised as legal. We will consider taking further steps as soon as we receive the Supreme Court’s verdict,” UPN head Ondrej Krajnak said.
It ensues from the UPN archives that in 1980, Babis became an StB informer and two years later, he was recruited by the StB as an agent with the codename Bures.
Babis was allegedly won over by StB lieutenant Julius Suman. However, Suman said at the Bratislava district court that this piece of information is not true and that Babis was not recruited for the StB.
Babis has long denied witting cooperation with the StB. He said repeatedly in the past that he came in contact with StB officers during the Communist regime when he worked for the Petrimex Czechoslovak foreign trade company. He said they were only interested in Petrimex’s trade activities.
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