Former police chief running for pro-Russian party detained in Slovakia

The former chief of Slovakian police, Tibor Gaspar, was arrested on August 11 by officers of the National Criminal Agency.

Gaspar is running for the pro-Russian Smer party of former Prime Minister Robert Fico in the early elections in September. He is ninth on the party’s electoral list.

The Slovak media Aktuality reported this.

Photo: Tibor Gaspar. Credit: TASR

The reason for Gashpar’s detention is said to be a corruption case. “The former police chief is implicated in the “Purgatory” case and spent almost a year in a pre-trial detention centre,” Aktuality reminds. Roman Stahl, a former high-ranking police officer, was also detained for corruption.

The arrest of his father was confirmed by Gashpar’s son Pavol, who called the event a “pre-election circus”.

The party leader Robert Fico spoke about an “attack on Smer”. He criticised Prime Minister Ludovit Odor and President Zuzana Caputova, saying that they should have known about the police’s actions.

The “Purgatory” case involves the suspicion that under Gaspar and Interior Minister Robert Kaliniak, the police were subjected to mafia influence by Norbert Biedor, an oligarch close to the Smer party (at the time when Fico was Prime Minister) and Gaspar’s relative.

Gaspar was the head of the police from 2012 to 2018. He resigned in May 2018, a few months after the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kushnirova.

Reportedly, Slovak President Zuzana Caputova is concerned that after the upcoming parliamentary elections, the country’s foreign policy stance may become similar to that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who leads a pro-Russian policy inside the EU.

Read more about the Slovakia election 2023 in our article.