PG Zilinka Lodges Protest in Case of Accident Involving SIS Head Gaspar

Bratislava, 28 July (TASR) - Prosecutor-General (PG) Maros Zilinka on Tuesday lodged a prosecutor's protest against the decision by President Peter Pellegrini, dated 5 March, to impose a disciplinary measure on Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) director Pavol Gaspar, TASR has learnt from Zilinka's post on social media. In the protest, the prosecutor proposes that the president should revoke the contested decision in its entirety on the grounds that it was unlawful. "The reason for the public prosecutor's appeal is that the president's decision breached the provisions of the Act on the Civil Service of Members of the Police Corps, the Slovak Intelligence Service, the Prison and Judicial Guard Corps and the Railway Police," stated Zilinka. The PG went on to explain that the president, acting as the administrative authority, merely stated in the operative part of the decision that he was imposing a disciplinary measure on the party to the proceedings, without the operative part of the decision clearly setting out the action that constituted the disciplinary offence and in such a way that the action couldn't be confused with any other action. According to Zilinka, the president also failed to establish the facts of the case accurately and fully, didn't determine the extent of the unlawful conduct, and took no action in this regard, as a result of which he reached a premature decision. When providing the grounds for the decision, Pellegrini, according to Zilinka, omitted administrative reasoning which, as an administrative authority, he had used when assessing the evidence forming the content of the file, thereby rendering the decision arbitrary and not subject to review. According to the prosecutor-general, the head of state also failed to establish the facts relevant to the imposition of a disciplinary measure for conduct constituting an offence, and he imposed a disciplinary measure at a level that clearly exceeded the upper limit of the fine laid down by a specific law for conduct constituting an offence. On 30 August last year, the SIS director was involved in a road traffic accident in Nitra. The police subjected the two parties involved in the accident to breathalyser tests for alcohol, and in both cases the results were negative. The president, as the superior authority of the SIS director, initiated disciplinary proceedings in January. In early March, Pellegrini announced that he had concluded the disciplinary proceedings against the SIS director, punishing him for the road traffic accident with a 15-percent deduction from his salary for one month. Pellegrini added that, in connection with the call for disciplinary proceedings from the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, he saw no reason to take further action. am/df