Prosecutors Council Calls for Restraint in Evaluations of Prosecutors' Decisions

Bratislava, May 30 (TASR) - The Prosecutors Council of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Bratislava is calling for restraint when evaluating decisions and procedures of prosecutors, emphasising that the legal system provides the procedural tools to seek changes in decisions or the procedures taken by prosecutors, its chair Peter Pilar declared on Friday. Pilar spoke in response to statements by prime minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) regarding the withdrawal of charges against Peter L. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons], a.k.a. 'the shepherd's axe man'. "The Prosecutors Council generally considers a public debate on the decisions and procedures of prosecutors to be a legitimate part of public affairs management in society, but it underlines that any criticism should be conducted objectively, without personal attacks on individual prosecutors and with respect for their decision-making activities," the council emphasised. According to the council, the disregard shown to such an approach by representatives of other public authorities has a negative impact on public trust in institutions and their decisions. The decision of a prosecutor from the Bratislava District Prosecutor's Office to drop the charges against shepherd's axe man, who was allegedly threatening the prime minister in a video, was evaluated by Fico on Thursday (May 29) as a decision influenced by the political preference of the prosecutor for the current opposition. According to Fico, the argument about freedom of speech in relation to the statements on the video is extremely dangerous, and the prosecutor's decision could motivate further hate-fuelled attacks. In this context, he called on Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka to "restore order in the prosecution service". The man with the shepherd's axe was mentioned on May 15 by members of the Smer-SD party, who linked him to the non-parliamentary 'Democrats' party. Representatives of that party described the statements and interpretations of Smer members as gross misinformation and manipulative propaganda. In mid-May, the police pressed charges against the shepherd's axe man, as reported on social media by Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD), who added that another person had been charged for the same offence. The police clarified that the accused are 47-year-old P.L. and 65-year-old P.P. A prosecutor of Bratislava I District Prosecutor’s Office later dropped the charges of incitement against P.L., evaluating them as unlawful. mf/df