Anybody has the right to comply with a court ruling by sending an apology in their mother tongue, even a Korean, said the vice-chairman of the ethnic Hungarian SMK party, Miklós Duray, on August 6, regarding an apology he sent to co-ruling Slovak National Party (SNS) for describing it as a fascist party, the TASR newswire reported.
“A principle holds that a citizen may do anything that isn't expressly prohibited by law,” said Duray.
Duray wrote the text accompanying the apology in Slovak, but the apology itself was in Hungarian. The court originally defined the form that the apology should take - and required it to be in Slovak. Moreover, Duray said in the letter that he was attaching the apology in both the Slovak and Hungarian languages but didn't included the former.
“I wanted to show that I'm able to use the rights I have in Slovakia,” said Duray.
“We haven't registered it as an apology but as a letter, a part of which we don't understand,” SNS caucus leader Rafael Rafaj told TASR, describing the letter as a display of arrogance and a precedent that will be subject to an examination by SNS's lawyers.
“A court's ruling is being executed when it is carried out in line with the wording of the ruling,” TASR was told by Pavol Adamčiak, spokesman of Bratislava Regional Court, which made the decision and order in the case.
“The damaged party has a right to claim a forced execution of a ruling if it isn't carried out voluntarily,” added the court’s spokesman, as quoted by TASR. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
7. Aug 2009 at 10:00