Slovak police have accused the intelligence chief and other senior security officials of creating a criminal group and conspiring to abuse power in a case just weeks before early elections, Reuters reported.

"The investigator charged him with the crime of creating, forming and supporting a criminal group, the crime of abuse of power and the crime of obstruction of justice," Police Chief Stefan Hamran said at a press conference on Thursday.

Police identified the accused by their first names only, but Hamran confirmed that the current head of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) Roman Alac, his predecessor Vladimir Pčolinský and the director of the National Security Service Roman Konecny were among the accused.

Slovak voters must go to the polls on September 30. The country is run by a caretaker cabinet after the previous ruling coalition collapsed in December due to infighting and lost the confidence of parliament.

Acting Prime Minister Ludovit Odor called an emergency meeting of the country's National Security Council for Friday to discuss the case, after which more details on the charges are expected.

Opinion polls favor the Smer-SD party, led by former prime minister Robert Fico, to win the September election.

In a poll conducted by the Ipsos agency in August, the populist "Smer-SD" received 19.7%, followed by the liberal "Progressive Slovakia" with 16.9%. The HLAS party, founded by another former prime minister and former Smer-SD member, Peter Pellegrini, has 13.3%.

Fico has opposed military aid to Ukraine and called for a diplomatic solution to the war waged by Russia since February 2022, Reuters recalls.

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