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KDH: People Planning to Radically Cure Judiciary Caused Its Illness
Tuesday 04 May 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, May 4 (TASR) - The Slovak judiciary is seriously ill and the people who are talking about the need to introduce a radical cure are the ones who caused the illness in the first place, Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) vice-chair Daniel Lipsic said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Lipsic was speaking in reaction to a meeting of the country's three highest constitutional officials (the president, premier and parliamentary chairman) with Constitutional Court Chair Ivetta Macejkova, which took place on the same day. The meeting in question featured a discussion on the current state of the judiciary.
"Half of the Judicial Council is made up of people nominated by the Slovak president, Parliament and the Government. It's these people who are responsible for the state in which the judiciary finds itself, because the people nominated are close to (Supreme Court Chairman) Stefan Harabin," stressed former justice minister Lipsic. He's convinced that when the top constitutional officials talk about addressing the state of the judiciary, it's only because of the upcoming election and not due to any honest intentions of effecting change.
According to Lipsic, President Ivan Gasparovic knew what Harabin is like, and yet appointed him to head the Supreme Court a year ago as soon as the Judicial Council approved the move. "Harabin represents the rule of law a la (Premier) Robert Fico," said Lipsic.
Lipsic thinks that changes in the Slovak Constitution will be called for in the next electoral term in order to address the state of the judiciary, featuring the introduction of security clearances for judges or different procedures for appointing members of the Judicial Council. "Neither a justice minister nor a Supreme Court chairman should be a friend of an Albanian drug-mafia boss [an allusion to Harabin's alleged friendly relationship with Albanian druglord Baki Sadiki - ed. note]. Such a criminal should be afraid of the justice minister, not calling him to come over for a glass of wine," said Lipsic.
Lipsic thinks that faith in the judiciary has also been undermined by the Constitutional Court's ruling that the Special Court in Pezinok is unconstitutional. "Constitutional Court Chair Ivetta Macejkova contributed to that verdict with her voice. This was a serious signal, indicating that just punishments for Mafiosos and corrupt politicians have no effective support in the rule of law," said Lipsic.
"Not a week goes by without some arrested Mafioso being set free and nothing happening. Not a week goes by without some cheats winning €50-100 million in the courts," he said, adding that the same principle applies to the enormous financial compensation won by politicians in slander and reputation-damage cases.
President Gasparovic said on Tuesday that it would be a bad thing if the European Court for Human Rights became a court of appeal against verdicts made by Slovak courts. "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 Gasparovic.
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