BRATISLAVA, July 11, (SITA) — In case that the Slovak Parliament passes the amendment to the Constitution and to the law on Judicial Council submitted for interdepartmental review by Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska, incumbent Judicial Council Chairman Stefan Harabin will not be able to remain in office. “The draft amendment to the law is worded in a way that the President of the Supreme Court would lose his post of Judicial Council chairman,” said Zitnanska at a press conference this Monday. . According to another proposal, offenses perpetrated by chairmen of the courts are to be reported to the minister of justice instead of to the Judicial Council, as they are currently.
However, the ruling coalition does not have the ninety votes in parliament necessary to adopt the amendment to the Constitution. Zitnanska therefore underlined that it will be the responsibility of the opposition and especially of SMER-SD: they will have to decide whether they will continue supporting Harabin and keeping him in both his positions. “If the Judicial Council is to have any meaning, it is necessary to separate these positions,” Zitnanska explained.
According to Slovak Supreme Court President Stefan Harabin, the justice minister fears democracy and of the judges‘ free decisions, she therefore changes the rules very quickly and on purpose. “The proposal is only a continuing of personal revenge. This is no reform, only personal political cleansing which results in protracted court proceedings,” Harabin told SITA on Monday.
SITA