Slovakia’s Ex-Premier Arrested on Fraud Charge

Masked commandos stormed the home of former Slovak Premier Vladimir Meciar early Thursday and arrested him on charges of fraud and abuse of power.

Police units took up positions around Meciar’s villa in the town of Turcianske Teplice, about 100 miles northeast of Bratislava, the capital, and stormed in after he ignored calls to come out.

He later told a news conference: “I was up there in the apartment. After an explosion, I heard that something was going on. . . . I went out--eight machine guns were pointing at me, so I called on them to put down the weapons. They did.”

“I went to Bratislava in a car with five members of the SIS [security services]. I asked them to stop pointing machine guns at me,” he said.

Top investigator Jaroslav Ivor said Meciar had been charged with “abuse of power by a public official and fraud,” offenses that could carry terms of three to 10 years. Meciar was taken to Bratislava for questioning, then released.

Meciar said that the charges had been trumped up.

Ivor said Meciar had knowingly paid illegal bonuses totaling about $314,000 to ministers during two of his terms in office in the 1990s.

Prosecutors also have tried to question the former premier about the 1995 kidnapping of the son of then-President Michal Kovac, one of Meciar’s opponents. Ivor said Meciar had been fined $226 for refusing to cooperate.

Meciar supporters prepared to demonstrate today in Bratislava, the capital. The demonstration, to be attended by supporters from all over the country, was due to take place outside government offices at midday.

Long seen by the West as a threat to Slovakia’s post-Communist democracy, Meciar was defeated in 1998 by a coalition pledging to reverse his authoritarian ways, build ties with the West and clean up a series of scandals that took place during his rule.