Prosecutors drop probe of Slovak ex-spy boss

By Peter Laca

BRATISLAVA, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Slovak prosecutors have stopped investigating a former secret service chief because there was no evidence he had ordered the killing of a key player in the kidnapping of the president's son in 1995.

Masked men seized, bound and beat the son of the then president Michal Kovac, and dumped him in the boot of a car in neighbouring Austria.

The abduction took place during the 1994-1998 term of former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, whose rule was denounced by the West as undemocratic and caused Slovakia's exclusion from NATO's first wave of enlargement for ex-communist states in 1998.

Prosecutors said on Friday the investigation did not prove that Ivan Lexa, the secret service (SIS) head during Meciar's rule, ordered the murder of a man who was the only contact with a witness implicating the SIS in the abduction.

"I was searching for evidence proving that former SIS Director Lexa was guilty of the crime of abusing his powers, the crime of endangering state secrets and inciting a murder," special prosecutor Dusan Kovacik told a news conference.

"There is no such evidence in the entire investigation documentation."

Former policeman Robert Remias was killed in 1996 in a car explosion. He acted as a link between investigators and an ex-secret service agent, who fled abroad after he said the SIS was involved in Kovac's kidnapping.

Lexa, one of Meciar's closest allies, had already been acquitted by courts, or prosecutors had dropped charges against him, in a number of cases ranging from fraud to trafficking illegal weapons.

He has vigorously denied any wrongdoing in all cases.

An Austrian court said at the time that Slovak authorities might have been behind the kidnapping.

Meciar's HZDS party returned to power after a June 17 election as a junior member of the government of leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico. He says the abduction of Kovac junior was fabricated.

Meciar's critics and diplomats accused him and Lexa of using the secret service to intimidate political opponents.

Slovakia is now a member of NATO and the European Union thanks to reforms adopted after 1998 when Meciar lost the election.

((Editing by Robert Woodward; peter.laca@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: peter.laca.reuters.com@reuters.net; +421-2 5341 8402))

Keywords: SLOVAKIA CHARGES