SLOVAKIA’S POLICE have mounted a robust defence of the state’s interior minister after opposition parties demanded his resignation over a botched security test in which a passenger unwittingly carried explosives on a flight from Poprad-Tatry to Dublin.
Electrician Stefan Gonda (49) was briefly detained in Dublin last Tuesday following a belated alert from Slovak police. They had planted 96g of plastic explosive in his luggage as part of a training exercise for a sniffer dog at Poprad-Tatry last Saturday week.
The head of Slovakia’s border guards has stepped down and disciplinary action is being taken against the unnamed dog handler, who forgot to remove the explosives. However interior minister Robert Kalinak has staunchly refused to take any responsibility for the debacle.
He has blamed a “stupid human error” rather than systemic faults for the incident.
“Minister Robert Kalinak will be remembered in the history of the police corps as a minister who has extraordinary merit in increasing the quality of work and the living conditions of members of the police corps,” Slovakia’s main police union said.
“The Trade Union of Police in the Slovak Republic resolutely demands that when the investigation of the incident is completed, the interior minister immediately adopts necessary personnel and organisational measures that would prevent a similar case in the future.”
Prime minister Robert Fico has also defended Mr Kalinak, a long-time ally in the ruling Smer party, and insisted that there was no reason for him to be sacked or to resign.
“Kalinak’s bad luck was that a person, an individual police officer, failed during a dog-training exercise while he was in office,” said Mr Fico.
Six months before a general election in Slovakia, opposition parties are outraged at the refusal of the government and Mr Kalinak to take responsibility for the fiasco, which they call just the latest in a string of cases that have exposed the incompetence, corruption and brutality of the Slovak police force.
“In my eyes the interior minister is a public authority and he should therefore take the full responsibility for this serious blemish on the reputation of Slovakia,” said former defence minister Martin Fedor, who is a leading member of the main opposition party.
"I believe it is a failure of his personal and professional judgment if he does not offer his resignation," Mr Fedor told The Irish Times.