Slovakia’s ex-police chief commits suicide in custody

BRATISLAVA: Slovakia´s former police chief died in police custody in an apparent suicide, officials said Wednesday, after he was charged with receiving massive bribes while in office. Milan Lucansky, a 50-year-old former police general, was arrested earlier this month on graft charges over some half a million euros in alleged bribes. Slovak media reported he was found hanging by the neck in his cell on Tuesday evening at a prison in the eastern city of Presov where he was remanded in custody. Physicians failed to revive him and he was pronounced dead on Wednesday. "Today at 3.55 pm the attending physician confirmed the death of Mr. M. Lucansky," Peter Bubla, a justice ministry spokesman, told AFP on Wednesday.

Justice Minister Maria Kolikova vowed to set up a special commission to investigate the case which she called an "apparent suicide." Other officials have described his death as a suicide, including those quoted in the media.

Lucansky became police chief in May 2018, two months after the gangland-style murder of Jan Kuciak, a journalist investigating murky ties between businessmen, politicians and other senior officials. His killing sparked a wave of protest that toppled the government of then populist left prime minister Robert Fico.

Lucansky quit in August, citing differences with the new centre-right interior minister. Lucansky´s arrest came amid a sweeping anti-corruption drive launched by the centre-right government of Prime Minister Igor Matovic.

Promising to tackle widespread graft, Matovic won office this March on a wave of public outrage over the Kuciak murder. Although top Slovak oligarch Marian Kocner was acquitted earlier this year of ordering Kucik´s murder, prosecutors investigating it found that the businessman had exerted significant influence over politicians, law enforcement and the judiciary.

As a result, more than a dozen judges have been sacked in Slovakia, suspected of corruption and other wrongdoing. Among them are a senior Supreme Court justice and former secretary of state at the justice ministry.

Others facing corruption and bribery charges unrelated to the murder are former national police chief Tibor Gaspar, ex-head of the state material reserves administration Kajetan Kicura and former special prosecutor Dusan Kovacik.

Former secret service deputy director Boris Beno, the former counterintelligence chief Peter Gasparovic and former economy minister Peter Ziga have also been charged with corruption.

Slovak lawmakers approved a raft of measures earlier this month aimed at weeding out corruption in the judiciary.