Kidnapping of Michal Kováč jun.
The kidnapping of Michal Kováč jun. , the son of the former Slovakian President of the same name , and his deportation to Austria on August 31, 1995 can, from today's perspective, be the climax of the power struggle between the then ruling President Kováč sen. and Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar , although legally clear evidence of complicity on the part of the Prime Minister could not be presented.
background
Michal Kováč Sr. was a co-founder of the HZDS , the party that became the strongest parliamentary group in Czechoslovakia in the Slovak National Council in 1992 and led Slovakia to independence on January 1, 1993. In the same year, Kováč was nominated by the HZDS as a candidate for the indirect election of the President after its first candidate Roman Kováč could not achieve the required majority of three fifths of the MPs after several ballots. After his election on February 15, 1993, he took over the office of President on March 2, 1993. In the same month, the HZDS lost its majority in the Slovak National Council. The style of government adopted by Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar was increasingly displeasing to the President, so that he sharply criticized his former mentor Vladimír Mečiar and his political style in his annual speech to parliament on March 9, 1994. As a result, on March 11, the opposition passed a motion of no confidence with a narrow majority, and on March 16, Kováč appointed a new government under Jozef Moravčík . But in the new elections on September 30th / 1. October 1994 Mečiars HZDS was again the strongest party and Mečiar again Prime Minister. After taking office for the second time, Vladimír Mečiar did everything to get revenge on the president for his “breach of trust”. The President's budget and powers were curtailed by Parliament. Mečiar insulted Kováč as “dirtying the nest” and “traitor” because, after a visit to Washington, he passed on US criticism of the development of Slovakia. Kováč's interference in domestic politics was "unbearable," raged Mečiar on countless occasions. He accused the president of having the government parties spied on by the secret service and barred his access to the state media. When at the beginning of May 1995 a motion of censure against the president failed in parliament, the prime minister even proposed a referendum to overthrow the president. Mečiar supporters did not shy away from attacks on Kováč's family either. The allegations of fraud by the Munich judiciary against the president's son have been spread with relish in the media close to the government. In early June, Mečiar threatened to investigate the affair closely. Two weeks before the president's son was kidnapped, Kováč Sr., his wife Emilia and his two sons Michal jr. and Juraj were excluded from the HZDS , the party that President Michal Kováč once co-founded.
Course of the kidnapping
prehistory
Michal Kováč junior, who studied economics, had received an international arrest warrant from the Munich public prosecutor's office in connection with his professional activity at the Slovakian import company “Technopol” due to a letter of credit fraud amounting to 23 million schillings. There was no legal basis for extradition of Slovak citizens by the Slovak authorities at that time. Michal Kováč jun. Safe from this warrant on Slovak soil, but not abroad.
Raid
Michal Kováč jun. was on Thursday, August 31, 1995 at 11 a.m. in his Mercedes 190 D from Sankt Georgen (Svätý Jur) to Pressburg. The wine village at the foot of the Little Carpathians is around 15 km away from Pressburg, where Kováč has his company office. At the end of the village his car was overtaken by two “Seat Ibiza”. The foreign wagons, all with Slovak license plates, blocked Kováč's way. Then eight men - some in “uniform-like” clothing - jumped out, dragged Kováč out of the car and threatened with pistols. A sack was pulled over the victim's head, then thrown on the back seat of his Mercedes and handcuffed. On the way, the perpetrators demanded “cooperation” from Kováč, they would then release him in the evening, the kidnappers promised. When Kováč refused, he was shocked with electric batons and forced to drink a bottle of whiskey. The abductee lost consciousness along the way. In any case, he couldn't remember whether the kidnappers had taken him to his apartment. That is what the then Slovak presidential spokesman Vladimír Stefko suspected. Several faxes were found in the Mercedes, from which it emerged that the Munich public prosecutor's office agreed with Michal Kováč's interrogation by the Pressburg public prosecutor's office in September, which probably came from the abductee's apartment. In Slovakia one should have questioned the younger son of the president "only as a witness". The international arrest warrant, which had been in place since 1994, was not valid in the homeland of the wanted person.
Deported to Austria
With the "alcohol oak" in the back of the Mercedes, the perpetrators drove towards Austria. In front of the Berg border crossing, two kidnappers pressed Kováč on the floor of the Mercedes. Neither Slovak nor Austrian border organs noticed the kidnapped "stowaway". Kováč probably had his passport with him, but the kidnappers would certainly not have wanted identification. In Austria, the kidnappers parked the Mercedes at the nearest gendarmerie post in Hainburg. They laid Michal Kováč, who was still half unconscious, on the back seat.
Anonymous call from Slovakia
At around 5 p.m. the Hainburg police station received a call. A man with a Slovak accent announced that there was a drunk in a Mercedes behind the gendarmerie post. The man, the caller emphasized, was wanted by an international arrest warrant.
Detection by the Austrian police and extradition detention
The officers found the badly ailing Kováč in the Mercedes and had the man taken to the Hainburg hospital. The doctors actually found several injuries that matched the victim's later statements. The traces of the handcuffs and those of the e-shock abuse were still visible. In addition, the victim's face was marked by abuse. When the identity of the drunk was established, the Austrian StaPo intervened. While still in Hainburg, Michal Kováč was allowed to call his father around 7 p.m. The President was already in Eastern Slovakia, where he wanted to spend a long weekend. Kováč returned immediately. He and his wife Emilia arrived in Hainburg around midnight. The parents were able to speak to the son and of course wanted to bring him back to Slovakia immediately. But then the domestic judiciary got across. An international arrest warrant cannot be ignored. The journal judge in the Vienna Regional Court insisted on the arrest of the president's son. Anything else would have been gross abuse of office. However, it seems strange that the Mercedes was allowed to be taken to Pressburg by the president's chauffeur that night. However, the police emphasize that the car had been examined forensically before it was handed over. The above-mentioned documents were checked briefly and then handed over to the President. However, the limousine was only searched by the detection service group of the district command, not by specialists from the crime scene group. Michal Kováč jun. was transferred to the Vienna Regional Court on the morning of September 1, 1995. He was questioned again in the afternoon. He added only insignificantly to his initial information. His father's visit was already announced for the evening. He only wanted to inquire about the junior's state of health, he said, and did not intend to "intervene" for the son. The court ordered Kováč to be extradited. An extradition procedure had to be completed before being transferred to Munich.
Reactions in Slovakia to the kidnapping
The kidnapper's father, President Michal Kováč , tried to take diplomatic steps to release his son from his cell in the Vienna Regional Court and to return his son to Slovakia immediately. However, Kováč jun. out of sheer fear after his mysterious kidnapping, not interested in returning home immediately. The Slovak government dealt with this affair on September 4, 1995. It should be decided whether the Bratislava Foreign Office - as requested by President Kováč - should ask Austria to “return” Michal Kováč junior. Before the case was discussed in the government, Prime Minister Mečiar had an hour-long one-to-one conversation with Interior Minister Ludovít Hudek. Foreign Minister Juraj Schenk had previously expressed concerns about whether extradition from Austria was legally possible. The Slovak Presidential Chancellery hastened to clarify that President Kováč had only asked the Foreign Minister to apply for the son to be "returned" as a Slovak citizen who had been deported abroad. The power struggle between Kováč and Mečiar is also documented in the Slovak coverage of the case. The ruling coalition under Vladimír Mečiar and the pro-government media downplay the kidnapping affair and focus on the fact that the president's son was a suspect in a huge fraud case. Only the Slovak opposition put the delay in the focus of criticism and used it to whack the Mečiar government, which would be responsible for the dreary security situation in the country. The police, however, groped in the dark when looking for the kidnappers. Otherwise she would not have appealed to the perpetrators to come forward. They would be accorded "extenuating circumstances".
The involvement of the Slovak secret service in the kidnapping
The suspicion that the Slovak secret service was behind the kidnapping and mistreatment of Kováč jun. stuck, hardened soon after the abduction. When investigating suspicious vehicles that had been seen at the Austrian border at the time of the hijacking, it turned out that one belonged to the former CSFR secret service FBIS. Another was admitted to a five year old. Before the kidnapping, a neighbor of the president's son observed a van in front of Kováč's house for weeks, which was also seen in the courtyard of the secret police headquarters. On behalf of the government, this vehicle was equipped with the most modern interception technology by a Czech company. According to the Prague newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes, the car was said to have been sawed into pieces after the kidnapping. This abundance of clues only sparked surprising reactions: the chief investigator of the Interior Ministry, who had demanded the lifting of confidentiality for secret service employees, was fired. His successor, who dared to try again, had to go on compulsory leave. The only suspect interrogated so far was allowed to leave immediately by order of the public prosecutor's office. All of these incidents sparked an open argument between the police and the secret service.
Testimony of a former police major
A police major fired from the investigation team indirectly accused Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar of being behind the kidnapping and mistreatment of the president's son. During his research, Jaroslav Simunic found indications that the Slovak secret service SIS might have had its fingers in the mysterious game - and had publicly expressed this suspicion. In letters to President Kováč and Parliament President Gašparovič, the police officer called for the lifting of confidentiality for high-ranking intelligence officials, including SIS chief and Mečiar confidante Ivan Lexa. It was precisely because of these two letters that Simunic was fired. Kováč and Gašparovič are the wrong addressees, because the secret service has been reporting directly to the head of government for several months. “I know who I should turn to according to the law,” Simunic justified himself. “I purposely didn't do that. One of my versions of the investigation was that in the background of the kidnapping of Michal Kováč jr. The person who should decide on approval is currently standing abroad. ”Simunic was clearly aiming at Mečiar. That he has copies of the files in the Kováč jr. owned, he called it "free life insurance". However, it seemed clear that a former police officer who had worked with the SIS secret service before the kidnapping was involved in the kidnapping. Vladimír Levich is said to have stood on the Schmiere border when Kováč jr. was brought to Austria in his car. An armored van belonging to the Mečiar party HZDS is also said to have been involved in the kidnapping.
Worsening of the domestic political climate in Slovakia
The more it became known that the Slovak secret service was involved in the affair, the more the government and the secret service tried to curtail freedom of the press and freedom of expression on this subject. Pressure was put on critical journalists. There was occasional talk of personal threats. The President of the Slovak Parliament Frantisek Miklosko was even beaten up in front of his house. Miklosko belonged to the Christian Social Party of Slovakia, his party leader Čarnogurský had established a connection between Mečiar and the Kováč kidnapping in a parliamentary question. At a ceremony in October 1995 for the 1000-day existence of the then still young Slovak Republic in the Tyrnau sports hall, the entire top government, representatives from the church and diplomacy attended - only the head of state was not invited. The day before he was given the headline in the government newspaper “Slovenska republika”: “The President has an account in the millions at the Raiffeisenbank in Vienna”. A bank statement with the account balance 23,258,688.80 Schilling was printed as proof. “A definite fake,” as the Raiffeisen headquarters assures. The typeface and designation on the account statement would have been falsified, and the date was also set on a bank holiday that was not booked. The head of state's budget has been halved by the government for the past two years. As a result, the presidential staff had to be reduced from 116 to 49. During the same period, the prime minister tripled his budget.
Statements from an intelligence officer
Secret Service Lieutenant Oskar Fegyveres, 26, reported that at the end of August 1995 he witnessed the kidnapping of Kováč by colleagues from the "Information Service" (secret service, Slovak: "SIS"). Fegyveres, who had left Slovakia, was part of an "observation group" that Kováč had to observe from August 27 to 31. The order was given by the head of the intelligence service, Ivan Lexa, friend of the prime minister and President's opponent Mečiar. The surveillance team had orders to cordon off the road and keep other road users away if something happened to Kováč. Fegyveres did not recognize the colleagues who then forcibly took Kováč out of his Mercedes. Hours later, as is known, Kováč was found completely dazed in front of the Hainburg gendarmerie post. The witness testified before the Bratislava Police Department in September. Two officers to investigate the case have since been transferred. A grenade detonated in front of another witness's house.
Death of a perpetrator after a bomb explosion
A witness to the kidnapping, the secret service officer Robert Remiáš, agreed to reveal the actual circumstances of the kidnapping. Before he could make his incriminating statements, he died on April 29, 1996 after a bomb explosion in his car. Remiáš had been a close friend of Oskar Fegyveres since he was a student. The circumstances that led to his death could never be clarified by the investigated Slovak authorities.
The former mafia boss of Banská Bystrica , Mikuláš Černák, who is now serving a life sentence, wrote in his book entitled “Prečo som prelomil mlčanie” (Eng. Why I broke my silence ) that Prime Minister Mečiar himself carried out the kidnapping of Kováč jr . ordered from the secret service as well as the subsequent murder of Robert Remiáš at the Mafia:
“When they then realized how they screwed it up, they had the witness Róbert Remiáš eliminated and they ordered this crime from the mafia as well. The whole Slovak underworld from Košice to Bratislava knew that, and should we [the Mafia, note] fear such a state? "
Legal consequences of the kidnapping
At the beginning of October 1995 Elmar Kresbach, the defense lawyer of Michal Kováč jun. with the condition not to leave Austria for the duration of the extradition procedure. The prerequisite for release from liability was a deposit of one million schillings and the submission of his passport to the Austrian authorities. On December 27, 1995, the Slovak judiciary brought charges against Kováč junior. because of his involvement in the case of fraud involving the import company "Technopol".
No extradition to Germany
The Senate of the Higher Regional Court of Vienna refused extradition to Germany because the prerequisites for this had come about through a crime (deportation to Austria). The president's son left room E of the Vienna Palace of Justice as a free man, but stayed in Vienna for a few days and waited for the repayment of the one million schillings bail he had paid in December. Defense attorney Elmar Kresbach had surprisingly presented a prominent witness to the Senate during the extradition negotiations with the accused's father: a foreign head of state had never before appeared as a witness before an Austrian court. For the sake of order, chairman Friedrich Novotny asked the politician about his job, but subsequently addressed Kováč as “Mr. Engineer”. The president said he had learned from police officers that the kidnapping had been organized by the secret service in order to discredit him. Kováč wanted to add that the suspicions against the son had also been constructed, but the judge waved them off by pointing out that suspicion was not an issue at this trial. Both defense attorney Kresbach and senior public prosecutor Peter Lukasch addressed the dilemma of the judiciary in their pleadings: On the one hand, there is a request for extradition from a constitutional state, on the other hand, Kováč junior was deported to Austria because he could not be extradited from his home country to Germany. The Senate of the Higher Regional Court of Vienna decided in favor of the accused on the grounds that the kidnapping had violated the human rights convention and a person had been deprived of his freedom. That could not be a prerequisite for extradition. Incidentally, the German court closed the proceedings in 2000 for lack of evidence.
Diplomatic protest from Slovakia against the Austrian judgment
The Slovak Foreign Office provided another curiosity in this case. The Pressburg Foreign Ministry reacted with a diplomatic protest against the decision of the Vienna Higher Regional Court. The protest note was given to the chargé d'affaires of the Austrian embassy in Bratislava, Gabriel Kramarics, one day after the verdict was announced. Instead of being happy that a Slovak citizen is returning home, people in Bratislava are annoyed by the suspicion that became clear during the proceedings that the Mečiar secret service, which was hired against President Kováč, orchestrated the kidnapping. The responsible public prosecutor in Munich, however, did not want to comment on the decision of the Higher Regional Court Vienna.
Processing of the kidnapping case in Slovakia
After the term of office of President Michal Kováč sen. As the party with the highest mandate in the Slovak parliament , the HZDS temporarily blocked the election of a new successor. Until a new head of state was elected, the president's agenda - as provided for in the constitution - was passed on to the chairman of the government. Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar used this phase to put an end to all investigations into this kidnapping case that were directed against him with a declaration of amnesty in March 1998. A year earlier, Kováč himself had put down a Slovak investigation against his son in the fraud affair involving the company “Technopol” with a similar amnesty. He justified himself with the fact that the Munich public prosecutor was already entrusted with the matter. 15 years after the kidnapping of his son, the former Slovak President Kováč demanded that former Prime Minister Mečiar's self-declared amnesty be lifted in order to finally “bring him to justice”. After the death of ex-President Michal Kovac sen. In October 2016, the controversial Meciar amnesty was once again put at the center of political debate by the Slovak media. As a result, a majority in the Slovak National Council was found in April 2017, which actually initiated the lifting of the amnesty. After the approval of the Constitutional Court, the investigation into this case was resumed in June 2017.
Trivia
In 2017 the kidnapping case was filmed in the movie "Únos".
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chronológia prípadu únosu Michala Kováča mladšieho, Sme.sk, February 29, 2008 [sk]
- ^ Kurier, September 2, 1995
- ^ Kurier, September 4, 1995
- ^ Kurier, September 12, 1995
- ^ Kurier, September 14, 1995
- ^ Kurier, January 22, 1996
- ↑ www.pragerzeitung.cz, August 8, 2012 .
- ↑ Bola to Vražda bez Vinnikov. Remiášov príbeh v HN magazíne . In: style.hnonline.sk, January 24, 2016, accessed on January 28, 2016, 9:59 pm.
- ^ Kurier, February 26, 1996
- ↑ Der Standard, August 23, 2010 .
- ↑ Der Standard, June 3, 2017 .