Slovakia’s central bank governor has rebuffed a call by the country’s leadership for him to resign after a judge fined him in a bribery case.
Peter Kažimír, who has run Slovakia’s central bank and sat on the European Central Bank’s main interest rate-setting body since 2019, said in a statement emailed to the Financial Times that he was innocent and would fight the judge’s decision.
The statement came after Eduard Heger, the prime minister, told a news conference in front of the central bank headquarters on Thursday that it was “unacceptable for a person to be convicted of bribery by a court to hold the post of governor of this respected institution.”
The country’s president, Zuzana Čaputová, backed the prime minister’s calls.
A criminal warrant was made against Kažimír on April 3, Reuters reported, adding that the ruling was based on evidence submitted during an investigation and not a full trial. The verdict was made public on Thursday, according to Reuters, which added that the decision had not taken effect pending potential appeals. The judge also fined the central bank governor €100,000.
“I’m innocent,” Kažimír said in the emailed statement. “I’m yet to receive the court’s decision and order. I didn’t commit any crime and I’m confident I will prove my innocence during the main trial or an appeal in Slovakia or in the EU.”
In response to the calls for his resignation, he said: “I will not react nor comment on politicians’ statements during the ongoing pre-election campaign. I believe in the presumption of innocence. I’m executing all my duties responsibly and honourably.”
Kažimír, who is attending the IMF and World Bank annual meeting in Washington this week, has been among the hawkish members of the ECB’s governing council. He recently called for it to raise interest rates again at its meeting next month to tackle high eurozone inflation.
The ECB declined to comment. The heads of eurozone national central banks are appointed and dismissed by their own governments. A dismissal can be challenged by the central banker themselves or by the ECB at the European Court of Justice.
The charge against Kažimír was part of a broader series of investigations into alleged corruption among Slovakia’s business and political elite that were set in train after the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová in 2018.
Police linked the killings to Kuciak’s work investigating corruption, and the case sent shockwaves through the central European nation, leading to the resignation of then prime minister Robert Fico in 2018 and ultimately to the ousting of his Smer party in parliamentary elections in 2020.
Kažimír was initially charged in October 2021 in a case relating to an alleged bribe for a former senior tax official. The case dates back to his time as Slovak finance minister before he took over at the National Bank of Slovakia.
The website aktuality.sk wrote at the time of the original charges that Kažimír was alleged to have played the role of a “courier” in bringing a bribe of about €50,000 to a former official.
The Slovakian prosecutor said last June they had dropped corruption charges against Kažimír and ordered a review of the case against him after a witness was charged separately. But Slovak police later revived the case against him.
