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Gasparovic: ECHR Shouldn't Become Court of Appeal for Slovak Cases
Tuesday 04 May 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, May 4 (TASR) - It would be a bad thing if the European Court for Human Rights became a court of appeal against verdicts made by Slovak courts, President Ivan Gasparovic said on Tuesday.
Gasparovic was speaking following his meeting with Parliamentary Chairman Pavol Paska, Premier Robert Fico and Constitutional Court Chair Ivetta Macejkova in Bratislava, at which the four discussed the current state of Slovakia's judiciary.
According to Gasparovic, the increasing number of complaints submitted to the ECHR by Slovak citizens, mostly grumbling at delays in court proceedings, is disquieting. "It's not only a matter of money, with the state having to pay for court malfunctions. I suppose it's also a way of questioning the ability of our courts. That's why we're saying that this problem has to be dealt with," said the president.
At the session, Macejkova presented a joint initiative under the wings of the interior and justice ministries, along with the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor-General's Office, the Slovak Ombudsman's Office, and the Chamber of Slovak Advocates. The initiative should be aimed at reducing court delays under the slogan 'slow justice is no justice'.
Macejkova in particular pointed to the fact that some complaints are back at the Constitutional Court - after it already ruled on them, sending them to lower courts. "It's unthinkable to see them recurring after the Constitutional Court rules that the case must be concluded with no delays," she said, calling this practice "alarming".
The joint initiative should therefore seek ways to make sure that the rulings of the Constitutional Court vis-a-vis court delays are indeed dealt with. There should be thorough checks for this, said Macejkova. "There are ways to do that," she said, adding that the investigating authorities, the police and the courts should face disciplinary proceedings if they fail to play their part.
Between 2002-09, the Constitutional Court received as many as 48,109 constitutional complaints about court delays, for which verdicts have been made in 40,189 cases so far, said Macejkova. This means that each judge at the Constitutional Court ruled on 178 such complaints a year. Of all complaints, 641 were recurring ones.
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