Prime Minister Robert Fico said on September 24 that the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) ruling in favour of former Slovak Information Service (SIS) chief Ivan Lexa has made it impossible to argue that the amnesty protecting Lexa should be repealed.
Acting President Vladimír Mečiar awarded the amnesty to Lexa and a few others in 1998. Lexa had been accused of involvement in the kidnapping of former president Michal Kováč's son in 1995. The amnesties were abolished immediately after parliamentary elections in 1998 by a newly-elected government. This allowed Lexa to be charged and imprisoned from April 15 to July 19, 1999.
"Whether we agree with the amnesties or not, we have to respect them. I have said it all along and stand by it," Fico said following the government's regular weekly session on September 24.
The question remains whether Lexa will use the European Court of Human Rights ruling to initiate civil procedures in Slovakia in order to exact compensation, he said. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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