House: Committee on PG Zilinka's Decisions after USP's Scrapping Not Opened

Bratislava, April 30 (TASR) - A session of the parliamentary constitutional committee at which Prosecutor-General (PG) Maros Zilinka was supposed to explain doubts related to his decisions after the abolition of the Special Prosecutor's Office (USP) wasn't opened on Tuesday, as the committee wasn't quorate. "I initiated the session to give PG Maros Zilinka a chance to explain doubts related to his decisions regarding the scrapping of USP," said committee member and opposition MP Branislav Vanco (Progressive Slovakia/PS). Vanco will consider filing a motion to convene the committee session again. "The second option that we are looking at in a preliminary manner is to conduct a parliamentary survey at the PG's Office," he said. Vanco also spoke about the common interest of the governing coalition and Zilinka in the PG having all investigations under his control. He criticised coalition MPs for their unwillingness to open committee sessions initiated by the opposition. According to parliamentary constitutional committee vice-chair Ondrej Dostal (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS), the coalition refuses to allow committees to carry out their supervisory function. According to him, the PG has been acting as an ally of Smer-SD since the very beginning and later of Voice-SD as well. Parliament approved the abolition of USP as of March 20. Former USP prosecutors were assigned to individual departments of the PG's Office. The closure of USP was part of the approved amendment to the Penal Code. ko/df