Within her legal powers, Justice Minister Lucia Žitňanská decided on an appeal by Judge Peter Paluda which, according to the ministry, the previous two ministers had failed to decide and Žitňanská overturned a decision by former justice minister Štefan Harabin from July 2007 that removed Paluda from his post as the Slovak representative to Eurojust, an EU office for police cooperation, the SITA newswire reported.
Her action was challenged but it has now been supported by Slovakia’s Supreme Court.
"The Supreme Court has confirmed, that the decision on withdrawing Peter
Paluda is an individual administrative act, against which it is possible to lodge an appeal, on which the Minister of Justice is obligated to decide," says the statement released by the ministry on February 14.
Earlier, the current Chairman of the Supreme Court, Štefan Harabin, who had dismissed Paluda in 2007 when he was justice minister called Žitňanská’s step a “crime of abusing the power of a public official”.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
