Martin Smrek says he was questioned for an hour but was not told which of his organisation’s claims was suspected of breaking the law.
An animal welfare activist has been questioned by Slovakia’s organised-crime police after the Agriculture Ministry filed a criminal complaint over his organisation’s campaign against fast-growing chickens.
Martin Smrek heads Humánny pokrok, an NGO campaigning for better conditions for farm animals. Its current petition against intensive chicken breeding has attracted nearly 41,000 signatures.
The case has nevertheless reached the Office for Combating Organised Crime (ÚBOK), a police unit created in 2024 to investigate serious offences including organised crime, corruption, financial crime and drug trafficking. ÚBOK replaced the National Crime Agency (NAKA), which the current government scrapped along with another anti-corruption institution, claiming they had been misused for political purposes by the previous government.
“This elite police team, instead of investigating criminal groups that rob our grandparents of their life savings and the theft of state resources, has to chase chickens and NGOs over their legitimate work,” Smrek said.
