The judiciary is not in a good condition and this problem should be dealt with, Justice Minister Tomáš Borec said after presenting a report on the current state of the Slovak judiciary in parliament on December 18, the TASR newswire reported.
“When I became part of the government, I realised that the name of the Justice Ministry is a bit misleading,” Borec said, as quoted by TASR. “It should be called the Ministry of Courts’ Administration and Prisons.”
He explained that as a justice minister he oversees the quality of the representatives of the courts and has some rights pertaining to disciplinary proceedings. He also assured the MPs that he plans to effect some changes to improve the quality of the judiciary, but that this will take some time, TASR wrote.
Borec's predecessor as justice minister, Lucia Žitňanská, who is now head of the parliamentary caucus of the opposition Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), responded by saying that the Slovak judiciary has two big problems: the speed of court proceedings and overall effectiveness of the justice system; and the low level of trust in judges.
“Unless justice is the same for the powerful [people] of this state, the judiciary will not be trusted,” she said, as quoted by TASR.
Žitňanská called on Borec not to cover his eyes when it came to the real problems of the judiciary, such as the fight over the head of the Public Procurement Office, or the situation surrounding Jozef Čentéš' 18-month-long wait to be appointed general prosecutor.
Sources: TASR, SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
