JOZEF Čentéš, whom ex-president Ivan Gašparovič refused to appoint for general prosecutor, said that he approved the candidacy of Jaromír Čižnár for the post in a vis-à-vis conversation. Čižnár however claims that Čentéš first approached him three times trying to persuade him to take the post.
The case came on the heels of a recent Constitutional Court ruling on December 4 that Gašparovič violated Čentéš’s basic rights when he was lawfully elected by the parliament to the post of general prosecutor, but Gašparovič refused to appoint him. Later, all of the 82 deputies present on June 18, 2013 – all of them members of Smer – voted for Čižnár. The court has also cancelled the late 2012 decision of Gašparovič and approved compensation of €60,000 for Čentéš.
Čentéš spoke out on agreements for the first time on December 7 on public service RTVS in response to Čižnár’s challenge to explain their relations.
“And then I told him [Čižnár], okay, I’ll support you,” Čentéš said, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “I told him openly that I’d have no objections to his candidacy.”
According to Čižnár such statements seem like Čentéš allowed him to be a candidate which is not the truth.
“Mr Čentéš was an initiator; the reason was that he persuaded me to give him approval of my candidacy,” Čižnár told the press on December 8, as quoted by the SITA newswire.
According to Čentéš, the current head of prosecutors promised him, in exchange for his support, that he would resign if the Constitutional Court rules that he infringed on his rights with his actions. Čentéš said that they had concluded the agreement in May of last year when they met twice, according to TASR.
“Such a sentence has never been said there,” Čižnár said, as quoted by SITA, adding that he promised to resign in the case that Constitutional Court rules that he infringed on Čentéš’s rights by his candidacy.
Meanwhile several opposition MPs called on Čižnár to resign from his post and allow Čentéš to take over.
“If Jaromír Čižnár, who assured the public that he’d wait for the verdict of the Constitutional Court, possesses any sense of civic honour, he should relinquish the post of prosecutor-general,” said Ján Figeľ of Christian and Democratic Movement (KDH), as quoted by TASR.
Čižnár however, said in an interview with the Pravda daily that he has not violated anyone’s rights, and that his morals and conscience are clear. He even said that the legitimacy of his election was also confirmed by the Constitutional Court.
Source: TASR, SITA, RTVS, Pravda
Compiled by Roman Cuprik from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
