Interior Minister plays down fiery language, blames subordinates regarding suspension of elite investigators
Interior Ministry to pay fine for suspension of investigators.
"You, sirs, have turned Slovakia into a country in which one cannot live, so please pack up, make yourselves scarce, and please stop talking nonsense about the mafia, because the real mafia is you - the people of [former PM Igor] Matovič, of [former special prosecutor Daniel] Lipšic, of [former police chief Štefan] Hamran, [former acting interior minister Roman] Mikulec and [former police investigator Ján] Čurilla," said Hlas party's Matúš Šutaj Eštok in September 2022.
Later, he took action. One of the first moves he made after becoming the Interior Minister was to shut down the entire elite group of investigators centred around Ján Čurilla, who investigated top corruption cases.
Six policemen, whom the minister refers to as "the Čurillovci", were the priority target. As an opposition politician, he used to call them "cowboys who distort justice", "a bunch of goons" or "cronies".
"If such a pestilence were not under the protection of [then] president Čaputová and [then] prime minister Ódor, they would be put out of service a long time ago," said Šutaj Eštok in August 2023.
However, when as minister he was recently interrogated by a police investigator regarding the suspension of the Čurillovci, he played down his previous fiery statements. Šutaj Eštok claimed that he had no relationship with the group, felt unbiased towards them and did not see any problem in his statements.
"These are only abbreviations or names used for media," claimed Šutaj Eštok, when asked by the investigator on how they were supposed to understand the minister's previous statements regarding the Čurillovci.
The NAKA - Oddelenie Západ department interrogated Šutaj Eštok at the end of February this year, following a criminal complaint filed against him by the five suspended police officers. In addition to Čurilla, it was filed by Branislav Dunček, Róbert Magula, Milan Sabota and Štefan Mašin.
The minister is suspected of abusing the powers of a public official, since he himself suspended the Čurillovci, even though he did not have to. At the same time he also ignored the fact that they received whistleblower status and as such were under the protection of the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers, which had to approve any labour-related move.
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