Kočner's political crony reportedly hid a camera in his own office

A video proves ex-general prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka and Marian Kočner were a good team.

Marian Kočner is placing a camera in the office of former general prosecutor, Dobroslav Trnka, while Trnka himself is present in the room. This is one of the images shown in a video, published by the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism (CCIZ) on its YouTube channel.

The video is only one of a few that are part of the case file on the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/bub8J2THmUA

Trnka, who served as the general prosecutor between 2004 and 2011, still works at the General Prosecutor's Office, despite media-published information that suggests he accepted bribes and committed corruption while in office.

Incumbent General Prosecutor Jaromír Čižnár said he currently cannot suspend Trnka. However, he is disappointed by Trnka's past actions, the Sme daily reported.

Short video footage

At the beginning, the video briefly shows someone handing the camera over in a car on January 1, 2000, at 11:36.

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“The date may not be set correctly, and the recording may have been made several years later if nobody made an effort to set the exact time on the camera,” the Ján Kuciak Investigation Centre (ICJK) wrote on its website.

The date then changes to January 2, 2000, when Trnka appears in the frame. He is not in his office alone. Kočner is installing the camera while instructing Trnka where he should sit. It is apparent that Trnka is expecting a guest who is to be secretly recorded for some reason.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which the CCCIZ and ICJK are members of, obtained a video from an anonymous source.

Čižnár is speechless

For now, the former general prosecutor is still working at the General Prosecutor's Office because he has not been formally charged.

After seeing the video, Čižnár said he does use methods embraced by Trnka as he himself “would never lower to anything like this”.

“For Čižnár, it is difficult to comment on this as it goes beyond any professional, ethical, or moral, levels,” the General Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Andrea Predajňová said, as quoted by Sme.

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It will be important to find out until when a recording device was hidden in Trnka's office, she added.

Trnka & Kočner as a team

It is not the first time Trnka has appeared in a recording. Recently, a surfaced audio file revealed how Kočner told off Trnka for blackmailing Jaroslav Haščák of the Penta financial group with the Gorilla recording.

“A new recording shows Trnka worked with Kočner regularly and even allowed him to install a hidden camera in his own office,” the ICJK wrote.

Trnka has denied recording anyone in his office.

Disclaimer: The Penta financial group has a minority share in Petit Press, the co-owner of The Slovak Spectator.

30. Oct 2019 at 22:04 | Compiled by Spectator staff