The former minister weakened the Slovak armed forces by giving away fighter jets.
Slovak Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinák announced after Wednesday's meeting of the government in Bratislava that he will file a complaint regarding the Slovak MiG-29 fighter jets gifted to Ukraine by his predecessor last spring.
In March 2023, during the executive government of Eduard Heger, Slovakia handed over its entire fleet of fighter aircraft, 13 MiG-29s, and a Kub air defense system to Ukraine.
Jaroslav Nad, the Minister of Defense at the time, and the decision were also subject to many criticisms, partly from the opposition parties at the time, which claimed:
the Heger cabinet, as an executive government, did not have the authority to make a decision on such a serious issue.
In the matter, the opposition at the time proposed an extraordinary parliamentary session on several occasions, but none of them were held due to parliamentary obstructions by representatives of the governing parties.
Robert Kalinák pointed out the reason for the complaint announced on Wednesday: Jaroslav Nad weakened the Slovak armed forces by donating the fighter jets and thus made a decision contrary to the provisions of the Basic Law.
"To weaken the armed forces against the constitution in this way can only be called treason in our political dictionary"
- stated Robert Kalinák, whose words were quoted by the Slovak public service news agency TASR.
On Wednesday, the Slovak Ministry of Defense also informed the Slovak News Agency about the planned legal steps in the case, pointing out that the Heger cabinet, acting as the executive government, did not have the authority to make a decision on the handover of the fighter jets.
The state secretary of the ministry, Igor Melicher, said in this context: they tried to find in the ministry's documents the alleged legal analysis that the then head of the ministry, Jaroslav Nad, referred to in connection with the gift.
The minister published a document on his Facebook page, but neither this document nor any document indicating that such an expert opinion was ordered or prepared was found.
"It turned out that the former minister lied when he referred to a legal analysis regarding the gift of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine," stated Igor Melicher.
Cover photo: Robert Kalinák
Source: Slovak Ministry of Defense
