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A car owner in Slovakia received a fine after a photograph from a speed camera, shared on Facebook, seemingly depicted a cheerful dog occupying the driver’s seat of a Skoda vehicle. The car owner claimed that his brown hunting dog had spontaneously leaped onto his lap while driving. However, authorities in the village of Sterusy, located northeast of the capital, Bratislava, asserted that video evidence contradicted this account, as there was no sudden movement within the vehicle. It remains unclear whether the fine, which was imposed on the owner and not the dog, was related to speeding or failing to properly secure the pet during travel.

Police have taken this opportunity to remind drivers of the importance of safely securing their pets when operating a vehicle, emphasizing that even a small animal can pose risks to the driver’s safety and well-being.

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Peter Kazimir, the chairman of Slovakia’s central bank, is currently charged with bribery a second time. Charges related to the alleged bribe, which dates back to when he was a finance minister, had previously been withdrawn by the prosecution.

He has denounced the accusation and said he did nothing wrong. Mr. Kazimir is a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank and served as the Slovak finance minister from 2012 to 2019 in the Smer party’s center-left administration.

The National Bank of Slovakia released a statement from him in which he declared, “The accusation that I should have bribed a senior [tax] official is an absolute lie.” “I have not broken any laws.”

The charge was dismissed and the matter was given to prosecutors for examination by the special prosecutor’s office in June. The National Criminal Agency’s decision to reinstate the charges, according to the central bank governor’s attorney, disregarded the prosecutors’ judgement.

Slovakia has long been plagued by corruption. When the centre left took office in 2012, they took the place of a party beset by financial scandals. However, people later voted them out in favour of a new administration that prioritised fighting corruption.

Numerous public officials have now been charged with corruption. Frantisek Imrecze, a former chief of the tax administration who is facing multiple charges and is cooperating with the police, is one of them.

Mr Kazimir was initially charged last year with corruption. According to Slovak media, he was alleged to have acted as an intermediary in giving Mr Imrecze a bribe of nearly €50,000 (£43,000).

However, the case was apparently withdrawn since it relied completely on Mr. Imrecze’s  testimony. In response to a tracking device being discovered under his car, Mr. Imrecze has now requested police protection. According to Slovak media, he feared for his life.

As part of its so-called Mytnik operation into suspicions of corruption in the acquisition of significant IT systems for the financial administration, the National Criminal Agency has charged several people, among them Mr. Imrecze.

Following the discovery of an alleged scam involving discounted textile imports coming into the EU from China by the EU’s anti-fraud office, Olaf, Mr. Imrecze resigned from his position as head of Slovakia’s financial administration in 2018. According to estimates, the losses cost the EU millions of euros in unpaid customs duties and sales taxes.

2018 saw the murder of a young investigative journalist who exposed dishonest businessmen.

After Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova were killed, riots broke out, leading to the resignation of both the police head and Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico.

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The European country of Austria has admitted that it failed to follow up the warning given by Slovakia over the gunman who carried out a deadly terror attack in the city of Vienna.

The attack left as many as four people killed. It also left more than 23 people injured. The brutal attack occurred on Monday.

The attacker was killed few minutes after he had carried out the attack in the city of Vienna.

As per a statement released by Slovenia police, days before the gunman carried out the attack, he had travelled to Slovenia to purchase a gun.

According to the statement, he returned to Austria emptyhanded from the country as he could not purchase a weapon from the country.

Slovenia has strict gun laws.   

The gunman was just 20 years old.

The attack which took place in the city of Vienna was the most serious attack the city witnessed in recent past.

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News Politics

Zuzana Caputova, the Anti-corruption candidate has won Slovakia’s presidential election and became the first female president of Slovakia. Zuzana defeated the high-profile diplomat Maros Sefcovic who was nominated by the governing party, without any political experiences.

Zuzana framed the election as a struggle between good and evil. She gained 58.3 percent of the votes after results from 98.1 percent of voting districts were counted, ahead of European commissioner Maros Sefcovic who took 41.7 percent.

During the vote counting, Zuzana came as the frontrunner for the presidential post. The official results were declared on Sunday by Slovakia’s election commission.

She first achieved renown by prevailing in a decade-long struggle against the situating of a toxic landfill in her hometown of Pezinok. For this she was awarded a 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize. In December 2017, she announced her entry into the emerging political party Progressive Slovakia, and in January 2018, she was elected as a Vice-Chairwoman at the party’s first congress, aiding Ivan Stefunko’s efforts to assure the representation of a credible socially-liberal alternative to the conservative status quo in Slovakia.

Image courtesy: japantimes.co.jp / images are subject to copyright.