Kalinak: Parliamentary Debate on Scrapping UOO Wasn't Insufficient

(JOJ 24,'Politika 24', 21 December ) Speaking on JOJ 24's discussion programme 'Politika 24' (Politics 24) on Sunday, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) said that he doesn't think that the parliamentary debate on scrapping of the Whistleblowers Protection Office (UOO) was insufficient, as MPs deliberated on the law for two weeks. It would be something different if the draft were submitted to Parliament in the morning and approved by MPs in the afternoon, said Kalinak. According to him, the Constitutional Court isn't consistent in its procedures, as it hasn't suspended the effect of other laws in the past. The vice-premier also responded to the statements made by Police Corps President Jana Maskarova at a news conference on Friday (19 December). Maskarova expressed her concern that changes to the Criminal Procedure Code concerning the testimony of cooperating defendants, adopted by Parliament as part of an amendment to the Penal Code, could complicate police work. Kalinak dismissed this concern, stating that in some cases courts have convicted individuals solely based on the testimony of a cooperating defendant. However, he didn't cite specific examples. According to the defence minister, coalition voters are dissatisfied chiefly because criminal cases from the previous government's term are being investigated slowly. "I think that it’s clear why coalition voters are the least satisfied: it’s the Interior Ministry’s low efficiency in investigating these criminal cases in recent times," said Kalinak. ko