Crime in Slovakia

Slovakia (population 5,4 million) is a Central European country with a history of relatively low crime. While crime became more widespread after the fall of communism in 1989, it remains low when compared to many other post-communist countries. According to the United States Department of Defense, Slovakia has a medium rate of crime. Apart from the occasional mafia shooting, gun violence is rare in the country. There are approximately 3.000 – 4.000 home burglaries and 7.000 – 8.000 car thefts in Slovakia each year. Together, there are around 15.000 cases of violent criminal acts (damage to victim's life or health) in Slovakia each year. Slovakia employs numerous law enforcement bodies and secret services in fighting crime, yet according to numerous opinion polls the Police together with the Secret Services are some of the least trusted institutions in the country.

History

During the 1990s, there were 2.300 reported crimes per 100.000 citizens in Slovakia. In comparison with the neighboring countries - it was 3.200 in Hungary, 3.400 in Poland, 4.100 in the Czech Republic and 6.100 in Austria. It has to be noted that the comparatively higher number of crimes in Austria is in a large part because Austrian citizens have a much higher law awareness and tend to cooperate with the police more than for example Slovaks.

From 1989 to 1999, the number of crime perpetrators has slightly risen from over 35.000 in 1989 to almost 45.000 in 1999. The number of perpetrators not convicted remains stable at some 80 percent of total perpetrators. Also somewhat stable is the number of habitual offenders at approximately 10.000.

The 2000s saw again a slight rise in the number of perpetrators and a steep rise in economic crime.

List of notable crimes committed in Slovakia after 1989

• From October 6, 1990 to July 16, 1991 Bratislava had two active serial killers. Between them, international killer and necrophile Ondrej Rigo and the "genius" serial killer Jozef Slovák murdered at least 10 people in the Slovak capital.
• Vietnameese family of 5 mass murder by Viliam Hauser and Róbert Matta on April 8, 1994 in Bratislava.
• The kidnapping to Austria and light torture of the President of Slovakia's son, Michal Kováč, Jr., on August 31, 1995. See Michal Kováč. From 1994 to 1998 the Slovak government committed several crimes, remaining unsolved to this day mainly because of the second amnesty by then acting president Vladimír Mečiar in 1998 (the first amnesty was botched). This amnesty shielded Gustav Krajci and Jaroslav Svěchota, and later also Ivan Lexa.
• Assassination of Róbert Remiáš in Bratislava carried out by Jozef Roháč and Imrich Oláh and ordered by the Slovak Secret Service (Slovenská informačná služba) on April 29, 1996.
• Assassination of former Minister in three Slovak governments and privatisation oligarch Ján Ducký on January 11, 1999. He was shot three times to the head in the hallway of an apartment building in Bratislava by an unknown gunman. It was probably a targeted killing in relation to the so called Duckého zmenky.
• Mass murder of the whole mafia gang of Pápayovci (11 people) in Club Fontána in Dunajská Streda on March 25, 1999. This execution carried out by three unknown gunmen remains the worst case of mass murder in modern history of Slovakia.
• The Kyselinári case 2000-2001 - the most sophisticated case solved by the Slovak police to that date, involving carousel trading with fake computer software, murders and dissolving the bodies in acid.
• The murder of student Daniel Tupý probably by neo-nazis (or low-ranking mafia) in Petržalka, Bratislava on November 4, 2005. His murder became a symbol of violence and racism still present in Bratislava.
• Controversial case of assault on Hedviga Malinová in Nitra on August 25, 2006 worsening international relations between Slovakia and Hungary.
• 2010 Bratislava hidden explosives incident and Dublin bomb alert caused by the Slovak police in Poprad. On January 2, 2010 Slovak police put 90 grams of RDX plastic explosive into the baggage of a Slovak citizen living in Ireland, whose apartment was later raided by the Irish police after having a whole city district sealed off.
• Ľubomír Harman became the first Slovak spree killer after killing 7 people before committing suicide in 2010 Bratislava shootings in Devínska Nová Ves, Bratislava on August 30, 2010.
• Former Chairman of the Czechoslovak Constitutional Court and prominent lawyer Ernest Valko was murdered in his house in Limbach on November 8, 2010.
• On December 10, 2010 the Slovak police loaded a truck with 15 tons of precursors to manufacture heroin, telling the Czech transport company that was supposed to take it to Turkey it was chloramine. The truck's driver Zdeněk Pekara was caught, briefly imprisoned over Christmas and later expelled from Turkey and banned for a year from entering the country, putting an effective end to his job since his transport company was specialised on Turkey. Pekara later survived a heart attack. Minister of Interior Daniel Lipšic publicly declared on his blog that he is proud of the Slovak police for choosing a brave solution (in war on drugs).

Illegal drug trade in Slovakia

Slovak Republic is a party to the 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1972 Protocol thereto, and the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Not only the manufacture and selling of certain drugs is illegal but also their possession. Slovak law does not differentiate between hard drugs and soft drugs and sentences can in theory be as harsh as life imprisonment.

Until the mid-1990s the drug situation in Slovakia remained somewhat stable; extensive small-scale illicit amphetamine production, no opium poppy cultivation, only minimal cannabis cultivation in private greenhouses and the country was already a key transit point for smuggling Asian heroin to Western Europe both via Ukraine and lying on the "Balkan route" from Turkey. Seizures of cocaine up to this point have been minimal and at this time Slovakia emerged as another crossroads for cocaine traffickers seeking new routes to Western Europe (Colombian traffickers have been smuggling cocaine through the neighboring Czech Republic since 1991). Because the banking sector in Slovakia was still in nascent stages at this time, drug money laundering operations were limited.

In November 1995, an independent national drug service was created in Slovakia and the government established a new comprehensive anti-drug plan to target drug trafficking and use and made drug-related changes to the criminal code. The biggest seizures made by the Slovak police in 1995 were a 123.5 kilogram heroin seizure, and a 25 kilogram cocaine seizure. Implementation of chemical control regulations and legislation continues to create concern about the vulnerability of the country's well-developed chemical and pharmaceutical industry being partially used for the production of illegal drugs or precursor chemicals.

See also

• Life imprisonment in Slovakia
• Slovak Information Service
• Slovak political scandals
• Human trafficking in Slovakia

External links

• Registered criminal offences by regions in the Slovak Republic in 2009 total - official data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic
• Damages caused by criminality in total (1989-2005) - official data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic