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Fico: Smer May Support Curbing Lawmakers' Immunity
Wednesday 11 August 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, August 11 (TASR) - The opposition Smer-SD party could back the Government's bill aimed at curbing the immunity of lawmakers and judges in Parliament provided it doesn't include judges, Smer chairman and former premier Robert Fico said after the bill was passed to its second reading in parliament earlier on Wednesday.
"We won't support criminalising judges, which is precisely what this bill is aiming at," said Fico, wondering aloud why the governing Coalition didn't hold off this bill until after next month's referendum, which covers immunity questions.
Fico said that support for the bill has yet to be discussed with Premier Iveta Radicova and that he hopes that "some kind of agreement will be arrived at."
Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska, who authored the bill, said that she could agree to removing judges from the bill but added that criminalising judges is a phrase mainly used by Judicial Council chairman Stefan Harabin, who suspended judges and initiated disciplinary proceedings against them himself as justice minister between 2006-09.
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