【经济学人】20年悬而未决的政治疑团|2017.04.01|总第861期

IN AUGUST 1995 Michal Kovac Jr, whose father was president of newly independent Slovakia, was stopped in his car by armed men who handcuffed him, forced him to drink two bottles of whisky and began driving him to an unknown destination. When he tried to jump out of the car, they beat him and shocked him with a stun gun. The 34-year-old Mr Kovac woke up in Austria, where police arrested him in connection with a German financial probe. They said they had been tipped off to his whereabouts by a Slovak informant. An Austrian court soon released him because of the illegal manner of his detainment. He was never charged.

1995年8月，此时斯洛伐克刚刚独立，新上任总统的儿子小科瓦克在车上被一伙武装人士铐起来，强行灌了两杯威士忌之后，被带去了没人知道的地方。当小科瓦克试图跳车逃走的时候，绑匪就开始殴打他，并且对他使用了电击枪。而34岁的科瓦克总统此时正在奥地利，当他醒来的时候，警察正以涉嫌一桩德国金融调查案为由逮捕他。 警察透露他们是通过一位斯洛伐克线人知道了总统的位置。而奥地利法院很快就因为扣留不合法释放了总统，而他此后再没有遭到指控。

• stun gun：电击枪

Slovak police and justice officials investigating the kidnapping were frustrated when a key witness went into hiding and his police contact was killed with a car-bomb.（读者试译句） Still, they managed to prepare an indictment, which was later leaked. It pinned the crime on private thugs hired by the Slovak secret services (SIS), whose head, Ivan Lexa, was the right-hand man of Vladimir Meciar, the prime minister at the time. The senior Mr Kovac was a political opponent of Mr Meciar’s. But before charges could be brought, Mr Meciar passed an amnesty law that buried the case.

（期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~）然而，警方和司法官员仍设法准备对罪犯提起公诉，但是他们的计划随后被泄露了。此后，这个案子被归罪到为私人做事的暴徒身上，而这些暴徒是由伊万-雷克沙所领导的斯洛伐克秘密情报局雇佣的。Ivan Lexa是时任总理瓦德米尔-米契尔的左膀右臂，但就在警方和法官提起公讼前，米契尔却通过了一部特赦法案，使得这件绑架案不了了之。

• amnesty law 特赦法案；大赦法

Mr Meciar has spent the past few years in quiet retirement at his mansion, christened “Elektra”. But on March 2nd a docudrama about the case, “Unos” (“Kidnapping”), opened in Slovakia, putting the old case back in the headlines. Mr Meciar felt obliged to appear on television to defend himself. Polls showed that 63% of Slovaks favoured revoking the amnesty law, and on March 13th Robert Fico, the current prime minister, announced that he would do so.

米契尔先生在过去的几年里一直在他的宅邸中享受他平静的退休时光，但是在3月2日一部关于绑架案的记录剧情片《Unos》在斯洛伐克上映了，再次将这件旧案子推上了头条。米契尔先生不得不在电视上为自己辩护。民意调查显示由63%的斯洛伐克公民支持撤销特赦法案。接着在3月13日现任总理罗伯特-菲乔宣布他将撤销特赦法案。

Mr Fico faces declining approval, especially among young voters. He may be defending himself against any appearance of complicity; his first government, in 2006, included Mr Meciar’s party. But he is also being pushed by popular anger at corruption, as the popularity of “Unos” shows. “Politicians should know that crime and wrongdoing can be punished, even after such a long time,” says Milan Stranava, the film’s producer. Any punishment will come too late for the elder Mr Kovac. He died in October 2016.

菲乔总理现在正面临着支持率，尤其是青年人的支持率的下降。他也许会因为受到任何共犯的指控而为自己辩护，比如他在2006年执掌的政府，其中就包括米契尔的政党。但同时他也因为电影中所传达的腐败问题受到了指责。该片制片人Milan Stranava说：“政客们应该知道，不管那些犯罪行为过去了多久，总有曝光的时候。”但是无论宣判了什么样的刑罚，对于已于2016年10月去世的科瓦克来说都已经太迟了。

翻译 ▍栏目六第一组

审核 ▍Arias

编辑 ▍且听风吟