Susko: Justice Ministry Seeks Expert Solution on Crime of Bending the Law

Bratislava, 29 January (TASR) – The aim of the Justice Ministry is to find an expert solution regarding the criminal offence of so-called bending the law, which was introduced into Slovakia's legal system by the previous government, Justice Minister Boris Susko (Smer-SD) said this after Thursday's meeting with a group of rapporteurs from the Venice Commission. "The Venice Commission is in Slovakia at the invitation of the Justice Ministry to discuss specific questions we raised. Our effort is to find an expert solution to a problem that arose under the previous government and for which Slovakia has long been criticised by international organisations and institutions," Susko said. The minister added that a new criminal offence, the so-called bending the law, was introduced into the Slovak legal order in January 2021. "Already at the time of its adoption, this issue was the subject of major controversy, not only between coalition and opposition, but above all at the expert level," he noted. According to Susko, experts were already "shouting" at the time that the offence posed a non-systemic element in Slovakia's legal system. "This offence applies only to judges and arbitrators, and at the time of its adoption it was understood by a large part of the public as a means of interfering with judicial independence. As a tool for persecuting inconvenient judges," he said. Susko added that the current government wanted to remove this offence from the Criminal Code. "However, since former minister Maria Kolikova (Freedom and Solidarity) set this offence as part of milestone 15 of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the European Commission, the directorate for the Recovery Plan, essentially did not allow us to remove it," he added. At the same time, according to Susko, another directorate criticises Slovakia for the existence of the offence of bending the law in its rule of law report. "We have a paradoxical situation that we must resolve. On the one hand, there is the Recovery Plan, where removing it would breach a milestone. On the other hand, there are demands from the European Commission and other international institutions to remove it, or, if it is not removed, to significantly bolster guarantees of judicial independence," he said. In this context, the ministry asked the Venice Commission for consultations. "Today's meeting was very constructive. Based on our meeting, the Venice Commission also requested meetings with other stakeholders in this area, including the Judicial Council, representatives of the Supreme Court, the prosecution service and other institutions that have a say on this issue," Susko explained. According to him, the Venice Commission rapporteurs will also hold meetings with representatives of parliamentary opposition and coalition parties. mf