Slovakia's English language newspaper

The Slovak Spectator online; July 22, 2004

Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports

THE RULING Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) party is believed to have committed a criminal act in the case of fake party donors.

The case goes back to findings made by the Fair Play Alliance NGO, which discovered that the SDKÚ donor list featured the names of people who denied having given any money to the party.

Police now think that the crime of falsification of economic data was committed and is asking the prosecutor to agree to shortened investigation proceedings, the daily Pravda wrote.

The proceedings would enable the police to collect more data for the case and identify individuals responsible for the crime.

The penalty for such a crime is up to three years in jail or a financial penalty.

SDKÚ officials would not comment on the development.