PARLIAMENT yesterday confirmed the controversial Tibor Šafárik as its 18th candidate for a seat on the Constitutional Court, allowing President Ivan Gašparovič to proceed with filling the nine vacant posts at the country’s highest judicial authority.
As a Constitutional Court justice in 2000, Šafárik upheld the validity of the amnesties issued by former Slovak PM Vladimír Mečiar to people involved in the kidnapping of the former president’s son. A group of legal experts issued a paper later that year declaring that Šafárik’s ruling had no legal foundation.
President Gašparovič nnow has the 18 candidates he is required to have by law in order to select 9 new justices for the 13-member court, which has been operating with only 4 justices since January 22.
Meanwhile, parliament re-elected Pavel Kandráč as Slovakia’s ombudsman.
