Leaked chat points at alleged links between Kočner and politics

According to the Denník N daily, the controversial businessman Marián Kočner, charged with ordering the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak, allegedly discussed assigning specific cases to specific prosecutors with the security entrepreneur Norbert Bödör, who a relative of former Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar, who resigned from his post last year.
Moreover, the daily wrote that encrypted chat conversations between Kočner and Bödör indicated that they had discussed issues related to the secret service (SIS), police, prosecutor's office, and Bödör had also provided the screening of journalists on behalf of Kočner.
Igor Matovič, chair of the opposition Ordinary People party said in his reaction that the evidence lay on the table of a state being controlled by the Mafia. According to Andrej Kiska, the former president and chair of the non-parliamentary For People party, Kočner and Bödör controlled the police and misused them on behalf of the largest governing Smer-SD party.
Speaker of Parliament and chair of junior governing Slovak National Party Andrej Danko refused to comment the chat until a final verdict has been handed down. "Only a judge can evaluate the evidence and its veracity," said Danko. According to the chair of another junior governing Most-Híd party Béla Bugár, the transcripts make for a disconcerting read, and law enforcement bodies must disentangle the facts as soon as possible. "Let the cards fall where they may," declared Bugár, adding that the police have had their hands untied ever since Milan Lučanský took over.
Robert Fico, chair of the largest governing SMER-SD party, who resigned from the post of Prime Minister last year after mass protests following the murder of Kuciak and Kušnírová said that the release of the transcripts was a cover up attempt by oligarchs behind the opposition. According to Fico, the transcripts are nothing but a weak attempt to deflect attention away from the drug abuse experiences of Michal Truban, chair of the non-parliamentary Progressive Slovakia party. Robert Kaliňák, Former Interior Minister, who also stepped down after the protests, agreed with Fico. He claimed that if allegations of Kočner's control over police had been true, he would not have been accused of several scandals even before the murder, when the police was under the previous leadership of Tibor Gašpar. Truban reacted that Fico and Kaliňák are afraid of being replaced by new blood in politics.
Prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor's Office Ján Šanta said that it is necessary to have the court deliberate on the submitted encrypted chat transcripts first and only then can the exchange of messages be released to the media. "Under the Criminal Code... I can't comment on whether the leaked transcripts are the same as the ones I submitted to the court as prosecutor," claimed Šanta, who serves as prosecutor in the TV promissory notes case that sees Kočner. and former Economy Minister and former TV Markíza director Pavol Rusko as defendants.
Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini also commented the leak. "I want to call upon all police officers, prosecutors and judges to continue putting in their honest work. They have untied hands and full support from the Government to let their investigations and prosecutions be guided by nothing but Slovak laws, their moral values and the principles of justice," said Pellegrini.
Kočner's lawyer Marek Para said that the veracity of encrypted chat transcripts has not been fully proven. Para also said that he was "literally disgusted by the continuing leaks from the investigative file" of murdered Ján Kuciak and his fianceé Martina Kušnírová. "Not only law enforcement bodies withheld the information about the existence and content of this transcript from me as a defence lawyer, but I'll be allowed to familiarise myself with this evidence no sooner than next week," said Para.