Justice Minister Lucia Žitňanská announced on Thursday, November 18, that she had filed a proposal at the Constitutional Court to initiate disciplinary action against Supreme Court chairman Štefan Harabin.
In recent months Harabin has repeatedly thwarted the Finance Ministry's attempts to carry out audit inspections at the Supreme Court. According to Žitňanská, every court chairman has to obey the law. "I've reached the conclusion that disciplinary action is called for," she said, as reported by the TASR newswire. She added that her ministry had already received a number of complaints against Harabin. She is proposing the harshest punishment possible for the Supreme Court chairman: a one-year salary cut of 70 percent.
"After an investigator and special prosecutor have brushed this case aside Ms Žitňanská is still trying to provoke further conflicts. I'm curious to see whether Ms Žitňanská along with [Finance Minister] Mr Mikloš will resign when I'm acquitted…" Harabin said in response. He added that the Supreme Court has got nothing to hide and is ready to undergo an unbiased inspection, which he insisted must be carried out by the Supreme Audit Office.
The justice minister said that she believed Harabin had broken the law by blocking the recent attempts at inspections. She stressed that the Finance Ministry had carried out an inspection at the Supreme Court as recently as 2009.
Source: 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.
19. Nov 2010 at 10:00
