Smer-SD Accuses Taraba of Political Manoeuvring over Cooperating Defendants Bill

Bratislava, 10 November (TASR) – The governing Smer-SD party views Independent MP Tomas Taraba's stance on the bill concerning cooperating defendants as political manoeuvring, arguing that if Taraba had reservations about the amendment, he could have raised them and submitted comments during the initial legislative process, Smer-SD parliamentary caucus head Jan Richter told journalists in the House on Tuesday. "As a minister and deputy prime minister, Tomas Taraba had ample opportunity to express his views on the legislation. He could have submitted comments. He sat next to Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) and voted in favour of the bill. I don't know what happened, whether he's undergone a change of heart, or whether he first did a forward somersault and has now done a backward one by refusing to support the bill at this point. The MPs who in some way support him also had the opportunity to express their views and submit proposals and comments on the legislation. Nothing of the sort happened," said Richter. He believes that Taraba isn't taking this step on the basis of an objective assessment, and he suspects political manoeuvring "or something else related with the establishment of a new political party". "I can't see any other pragmatic reason," he added. Richter also rejected claims that Smer-SD wanted to postpone the vote on the bill. He said the party intended to proceed with the vote and accept its outcome. "I convened the leaders of the governing coalition's parliamentary caucuses ahead of the vote and explicitly asked them to ensure that we voted on the bill on Tuesday, no matter what happened. We want to clearly put on record our position on the issue and reject any claims of manipulation, speculation and blackmail," he said. Richter and Parliamentary Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) also hit back at opposition criticism of the bill, rejecting claims that it is "Lex Tibor Gaspar". "This isn't legislation intended to help me. I categorically reject the nonsense being spread here by opposition politicians," said Gaspar. According to him, the amendment is intended to modernise the legal framework governing cooperating defendants, not to undermine the fight against organised crime. Parliament is yet to pass an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure that would change the system of benefits available to cooperating defendants. On Tuesday, MPs rejected a motion to fast-track the amendment to its third reading. They are due to vote on it at 11.00 a.m.on Wednesday (11 November) Of the 150 MPs present, only 75 voted in favour of advancing the bill to its third reading. The entire opposition, plus Independent MPs Tomas Taraba, Roman Malatinec and Peter Slysko, voted against the motion. mf/df