Slovak News Back to the news
Supreme Court Files Another Criminal Complaint Against Miklos
Friday 27 August 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, August 27 (TASR) - The Supreme Court on Friday filed a second criminal complaint against Finance Minister Ivan Miklos over what the court claims is Miklos's "false accusation" against its chairman Stefan Harabin, the court's press department told TASR later in the day.
The submission was made at the Prosecutor-General's Office. It comes in response to a criminal complaint that Miklos filed against Harabin earlier this month for what Miklos branded as obstructing the Finance Ministry's legitimate attempts to carry out an audit at the court.
Harabin, for his part, described the audit attempt as "unlawful".
Speaking on Friday, Harabin said that "I would only commit a crime if I allowed an unlawful audit to take place."
According to Harabin's complaint, Miklos's submission includes several lies that contravene the Slovak Constitution and laws.
The case of the Finance Ministry's audit at the Supreme Court has been dragging for almost a month. As the ministry wasn't permitted to carry out the audit despite several attempts to do so, Miklos decided to fine both the Supreme Court and Harabin, who claims that the audit is only a pretext for Miklos to liquidate the Supreme Court's independent budget.
Harabin has argued in writing to the ministry that the only body with the power to audit the Supreme Court is the Supreme Audit Office (NKU), as the Court uses funds approved in Parliament.
Miklos said that checking on public spending is within the purview of his ministry, and not even the Supreme Court can choose whether NKU or the ministry should carry out audits. The ministry conducted similar audits at the Supreme Court in 2007 and 2009.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
