Judges stand for Žilina, talking about the dissolution of the rule of law – PRAVDA.sk

Judges write about the devastation of the rule of law in a letter in which they stood up for Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka.

According to them, the devastation occurs “also by the publicly presented absolute disrespect of political power and a large part of the media towards the person of the Attorney General, which manifests itself in factual calls for non-respect of his competencies as a constitutional body for the protection of legality.”

Judges find it unacceptable “the efforts of the executive and the legislature to purposefully change the legal institutions used to protect the rule of law without any prior discussion.” The letter, which, according to Pravda, was signed by several dozen judges, is a response to this week’s situation. On the last day of August, the former head of the secret, Vladimír Pčolinský, was released from custody.

Deputy Attorney General Jozef Kandera found mistakes in initiating the prosecution during the investigation, and even according to him, the supervising prosecutor from the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s Office was also wrong. Therefore, he dropped his accusation, Pčolinský was released from custody, which he has been in since March 14, and the investigator has to decide on the matter again.

Pčolinský was accused of accepting a bribe in two cases. In one, he was to be bribed by a bankruptcy lawyer, Zoroslav Kollár, who was also released from custody. On the same day, Žilinka dropped the accusation of financier Jaroslav Haščák in the Gorilla case. However, the court has already pointed out the illegality before.

Žilinka called a press conference on Thursday, September 2. However, only two news agencies got to the briefing – one state, one private, and television crews. Similarly, Žilinka’s office has acted twice. Journalists who demanded entry were not allowed into the Prosecutor General’s Office building.

The result is an attempt by the governing coalition to encroach on the powers of the Attorney General and to amend section 363. This concerns the possibility of annulling a valid decision in the preparatory proceedings. “The Attorney General shall revoke a valid decision of the Prosecutor or a police officer if such a decision or in the proceedings preceding him violated the law,” the Criminal Procedure Code states, stating that an appeal against such a resolution of the Attorney General is not admissible and is therefore final. However, the Attorney General may annul the contested decision only within six months of its entry into force.

However, the judges do not only perceive the events of this week. “As judges, we consider it absolutely unacceptable the public degradation of duly substantiated decisions of the Prosecutor General’s Office by its subordinate judicial authorities and persons responsible for the performance of their duties directly to the Prosecutor General,” they write, pointing to verbal skirmishes between Žilina and Special Prosecutor Daniel Lipšic.

“Such behavior, widely supported by political and media attacks that do not have any objective professional basis, is massively undermining society’s trust in the judiciary,” the judges added.

He points out that the application of paragraph 363 is not correctly explained to the public and constitutes “insurance for every citizen of that State against arbitrariness on the part of the public authorities, and since it does not constitute an obstacle to a decided case, to bring charges, but in a lawful manner ‘.

Furthermore, the authors of the letter of judges also used relatively strong words: “Tolerance of illegality in the activities of law enforcement agencies is, due to its fundamental social danger, in its possible consequences in conflict with the proclaimed reform efforts to purify political and social life.”

They perceive that the decisions of the Prosecutor General’s Office are “contrary to societal expectations”. However, according to them, they are “significantly shaped by a long-term campaign of opinion-forming media, resulting from the subjective opinions of a narrow spectrum of the public with insufficient legal awareness.” “Given the basic principles of the rule of law, we consider it necessary to draw attention to the risk that society-wide acceptance and political support for such a situation is dangerously towards a totalitarian regime, the establishment of which is not in the interests of any citizen relying on constitutional bodies in the 21st century to protect their rights. in a free democratic establishment, “concludes the letter of judges.

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