A DISCIPLINARY senate has found judge Stanislav D. of the Bratislava I District Court guilty of a misdemeanour due to procedural mistakes in two cases he handled, one of which contributed to the release of Karol Mello, a fugitive accused of a double murder, the SITA newswire reported on November 14. The Justice Ministry had filed the proposal for the judge to be disciplined.
The disciplinary senate ruled that the judge had also erred in a case involving a taxi driver charged with drugging and raping a woman. The Sme daily wrote that the judge’s procedural error in that case was worse than the one he had made in the Mello case.
Mello, accused of ordering a double murder in the village of Most pri Bratislave in 2004, was arrested by Polish police near Krakow in October 2010 after spending more than five years on the run. After being returned to custody in Slovakia Mello was released on May 9, 2011.
The disciplinary senate concluded that there were some errors made in the arrest of Mello in Poland and that Stanislav D. had made a procedural mistake but that this did not have a crucial effect on Mello’s release as he would have likely been freed anyway, SITA wrote.
Mello was detained by the police again after his release in May but was subsequently ordered released a second time. Mello has since reportedly fled Slovakia once again.
