The daily paper Sme reports that two Supreme Court judges who released former secret service boss Ivan Lexa from pre-trial custody last month have received over Sk80,000 ($1,900) bonuses from Supreme Court Chief Justice Štefan Harabin, while a third court justice who voted against the release received nothing.
After being discovered hiding in Slovakia from an international arrest warrant and extradited to Slovakia, Lexa was jailed in July and faced 10 criminal charges from his 1995-1998 tenure at the head of the Slovenská Informacná Služba (SIS).
However, Supreme Court judges Harold Stiffel and Štefan Minarík ruled August 15 that the lower court judge who had approved Lexa’s pre-trial custody had been biased.
The bonuses paid to the judges were decided by Harabin, who comes up for re-election this December, having been appointed by parliament under the 1994-1998 Vladimír Mečiar government.
Compiled by Tom Nicholson from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
