Court in Slovakia upholds tax evasion verdict against former President Kiska

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — An appeals court in Slovakia on Thursday upheld a lower court decision that convicted the former president Andrej Kiska He was found guilty of tax evasion and given a suspended prison sentence.

At the same time, the regional court in the eastern city of Presov reduced the original suspended sentence from two to one year and also rejected a 15,000-euro (about $16,300) fine imposed on Kiska last year. by the district court in Poprad and lifted a six-year ban on doing business.

The decision is final, but Kiska said on Facebook he would file an extraordinary appeal in the country’s Supreme Court to clear his name.

61-year-old Kiska, who did not admit his guilt, became the country’s first former president to be tried and convicted.

The case dates back to 2014, when Kiska was running for president. At the time, he was a successful businessman turned philanthropist and had just gotten into politics.

According to the court, Kiska illegally included tax revenues from his presidential campaign on the books of the KTAG family company.

Such activities were not part of the firm’s business.

KTAG requested tax returns of over 155,000 euros (about $168,300) through Kiska’s partner Eduard Kuckovsky.

Kiska defeated then-populist Prime Minister Robert Fico in the race to become the country’s five-year president in a largely ceremonial post. Kiska’s tenure was marked by clashes with Fico, whose leftist Smer, or Direction, party was tainted by corruption scandals.

Kiska supported large street protests. Fall of Fico’s coalition government in 2018 It is in the midst of a political crisis triggered by the killing last year of an investigative reporter investigating possible widespread government corruption.

Pro-West Kiska did not seek a second five-year term in 2019.

Last year, Fico and the Smer party won the parliamentary elections. An agreement was reached with two other parties to form a new government.