Former Slovak President Andrej Kiska loses pension after fraud conviction

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia’s presidential office said Thursday it has stopped sending pension payments to former President Andrej Kiska because of his tax fraud conviction, and Kiska said he would challenge the move.

The presidential office said the halt in payments was triggered by an appeals court’s verdict on Oct. 31 that upheld a lower court ruling that found Kiska guilty of tax fraud and gave him a one-year suspended sentence.

The verdict is final but Kiska, who pleaded not guilty, said he will use an extraordinary challenge at the country’s Supreme Court to try to clear his name.

Slovakia’s presidents receive a pension of about $50,000 a year when they leave office.

Kiska said Thursday he doesn’t need the money but that he still will challenge the office’s decision in court because it’s a matter of principle for him.

Kiska beat populist then-Prime Minister Robert Fico in the 2014 race to become the country’s president for a five-year term in the largely ceremonial post. Kiska’s term in office was marked by clashes with Fico, whose leftist Smer, or Direction, party was tarnished by corruption scandals.

Kiska supported huge street protests that led to the fall of Fico’s coalition government in 2018 amid a political crisis triggered by the slaying last year of an investigative reporter looking into possible widespread government corruption.

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

Fico started his third term in office as prime minister in 2023.