POLICE have asked the Constitutional Court to strip three of its justices of their confidentiality pledge. The investigator of the anti-corruption unit wants to interrogate Sergej
Kohut, Juraj Horváth and Ladislav Orosz against whom Supreme Court President Štefan Harabin submitted a complaint, alleging they have abused their powers of public officials, the Sme daily reported October 18.
The justices were deciding over the disciplinary punishment for Harabin over his refusal to let Finance Ministry employees do an audit at the Supreme Court and ruled to reduce his salary by 70 percent for one year. The European Court of Human Rights later accepted Harabin’s complaint over the punishment agreeing with Harabin’s position that repayment of material damages stemming from the disciplinary proceeding was unfounded. The court acknowledged of €3,000 as compensation for non-material damages, and it called on the state to pay €500 to cover the court costs.
Harabin complained that though the justices were biased against him, they nevertheless decided in the case. The proceeding began in August, but the prosecution from the special department at the Office of General Prosecutor halted it in September to add more materials to the criminal complaint, as reported by Sme.
The police now seek to investigate why the justices did not tell Constitutional Court President Ivetta Macejková about their potential bias.
“In my opinion this complaint should have been dismissed long ago,” Orosz told Sme when.
The Constitutional Court should dismiss the request to strip the confidentiality pledge, Horváth said.
Macejková has not commented on the issue yet as she has not decided over the request yet, Sme wrote.
Source: Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
