Supreme Court president Daniela Švecová (source: SME)
In October 2015, Švecová filed a motion against former justice minister, head of the Supreme Court and Judicial Council, Harabin, and two other judges. When Harabin headed the panel with two other judges, Gabriela Šimonová and Viliam Dohňanský, they allegedly committed a grave disciplinary offence when they arbitrarily decided to free Milan M. sentenced for sexual crime, who caused a threat to society. Švecová proposed to re-allocate Harabin and Dohňanský to a lower-instance court, and to reduce Šimonová’s salary by 50 percent for six months, the SITA newswire wrote.
However, she only filed the motion in October 2015 which was too long after the alleged violation happened. Švecová argued that she only learnt about the case from the media in May 2015. Also, she was of the opinion that the case should have been considered to start form April 8, 2015 when the written arguments were available, and not from February, when the case was decided by Harabin’s panel.
Refusal and reasoning
Her motion was refused and she appealed the decision. On February 15, 2017, the appellate disciplinary panel headed by Stanislav Libant, refused the appeal but returned her proposal to the lower-instance court for re-consideration. Harabin insists on the case being handled, as he claims his innocence must be proven. Thus, the first-instance court must complete the evidence and rule in the case; however, it cannot punish Harabin anymore, Libant said, as quoted by SITA.
Currently, Harabin faces five disciplinary motions, and in two cases, Švecová proposes to sack him as a judge altogether.
