PS: Government Undermining Rule of Law for Political Gain (2)

Bratislava, 1 August (TASR) – The true agenda of the current government is to secure impunity for certain individuals, which is why it attacks the rule of law, the opposition's Progressive Slovakia (PS) party declared on Friday. According to PS, many people have already benefited in this way from amendments to the criminal codes. In the case of Parliamentary Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD), the government is portraying the matter as a political trial, PS stated, while calling for a fair and lawful process. "The public deserves to know whether the indicted vice-chair of Parliament committed acts of corruption, misused public authority and committed the other crimes that he is accused of," said Zuzana Mesterova, chair of the PS caucus, at a press conference. She added that the criminal code amendments have so far only benefited Gaspar by reducing the sentencing range he faces. "If this were truly a political case, the newly appointed investigators and prosecutor would have dropped the charges long ago. The fact that Gaspar remains indicted despite all government interference means one thing: the charges are legitimate and should be decided by a court," she stated. According to PS, there is also ongoing pressure on courts and judges behind the scenes. "In order to achieve their aims, they don't hesitate to attack the judiciary — the very foundation of the rule of law. They have taken control of the Judicial Council, amended the law on judges and created disciplinary panels staffed with loyalists. They publicly target judges whose rulings don't align with their interests," said PS MP Zuzana Stevulova, who also accused the government of attacking the Constitutional Court. In its response, the Justice Ministry claimed that PS's criticism should be directed at the "absolute interference in the judiciary" by former justice minister (2020-23) Maria Kolikova. In a statement provided to TASR by ministry spokesperson Petar Lazarov, the ministry claimed Kolikova interfered with the Judicial Council, the Supreme Administrative Court, and the court’s disciplinary panels. According to the ministry, Kolikova established the Supreme Administrative Court and staffed it with her allies through non-transparent selection processes. „She set up disciplinary proceedings as single-instance procedures without the possibility of appeal, which can be seen as a violation of fundamental principles of judicial procedure," the statement said. The ministry added that the current leadership under Boris Susko (Smer-SD) reversed this system, introducing a two-tier process to ensure fair judicial proceedings. „Current reforms are merely aimed at repairing the damage caused by the previous government to guarantee fair trials," Lazarov concluded. mf/mcs