THE RULING Smer party will not change its stance on the issue of Vladimír Mečiar’s amnesties and will not support attempts to repeal them. They were immoral but the president had the right to grant them, according to Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jana Laššáková of Smer, the SITA reported on September 22
The Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) MPs issued a letter to the other parties in parliament emphasising that the amnesties must be annulled in the name of justice. The KDH calls them the “moral and legal sewage” of modern Slovakia’s democratic history.
“These amnesties in their parts concerning the kidnapping of Michal Kováč Jr. abroad in 1995 and the obstructed referendum of May 23-24, 1997, are chaotic and represent a flagrant abuse of state power,” reads the letter that KDH leader Ján Figeľ sent to the parliamentary parties, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
More than 60 MPs responded to the letter and a proposal will be submitted at the end of this week, according to KDH spokesperson Matej Kováč, SITA reported.
In past, even the head of Smer and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico condemned the amnesties, but said that they cannot be rescinded, a stance that was even supported by the European Court of Human Rights. Anyone who wants to abolish them should return his or her law diploma, Fico stated in the past, according to SITA.
For many years the KDH has been trying to abolish with Mečiar’s amnesties.
“Abduction and murder are an unfinished case in the conscience of the Slovak government,” Figeľ said, as quoted by SITA. “The living conscience will not allow hiding or postponing such crimes ad acta.”
(Source: SITA, TASR)
Compiled by Roman Cuprik from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
