THE SECOND attempt to open the first hearing in the case of the Judicial Oscar association vs. the tabloid daily Nový Čas failed and the new date for the trial was set for October 1, the SITA newswire reported.
Nový Čas, published by Ringier Axel Springer, was sued by the Judiciary Oscars Association over the publishing of photos from a private meeting of lawyers and judges in the Bonanno bar in Rajecké Teplice in autumn 2010. Several of the association’s members who attended the meeting have filed individual lawsuits against the publisher for publishing the photos, seeking a total of €940,000 in damages.
In the original lawsuit, several judges and a senior prosecutor who attended the party at Bonanno, which they dubbed the Judiciary Oscars Association, object to Nový Čas’ interpretation of the photographs taken at the party, which appeared to link it to a tragic event that took place two months earlier.
Back in late August 2010, Ľubomír Harman, a 48-year-old man wearing blue ear defenders and armed with an assault rifle, shot dead seven people before killing himself in Devínska Nová Ves.
The Judiciary Oscars Association met two months after the shooting spree in October 2010, and in June 2011 Nový Čas published images from the party of retired judge Tibor Péchy sporting blue ear defenders and carrying an imitation assault rifle, plus video footage of the meeting. The judges and the senior prosecutor are objecting to associations made between the images from the meeting at the Bonanno bar and the mass murderer, arguing that there was no mimicking of Harman. They also claim the photographs were modified and falsified.
In one of the cases, of Judge Daniel Hudák, the court has already decided, ruling the daily must apologise to Hudák in print.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
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