The government plans to redesign the Special Prosecutor’s Office, which deals with serious crime, most often corruption. Prime Minister Fico submitted a proposal to the European Commission on Friday and has said he would like to get it through Parliament before Christmas. Various versions of the proposal have been leaked.
This is controversial because it prosecutes serious crimes, often corruption-related. In the last four years, its prosecutions have led to the conviction of around 40 people.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office was established in 2008, five years after the creation of a Specialized Criminal Court. Parliament found that a special court can only be effective if the police and the public prosecutors succeed in bringing well-documented accusations.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office was led in the first three 13 years by Dusan Kovacik. But he was arrested on corruption charges himself two years ago, and succeeded by Daniel Lipsic. He is a lawyer and former member of the conservative Christian-democratic movement (KDH), and served as interior minister from 2002-2006 and justice minister from 2010-2012.
Prime Minister Fico met with European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders in Brussels on Monday, and submitted a proposal on Friday.
On Saturday, he said in an interview with RTVS that he would take all the necessary steps for the special prosecutor Daniel Lipšic to leave the Office.
Peter Pellegrini, leader of the coalition party Hlas, said on TV on Sunday: "The intention is to bring the criminal codes of our country closer to developed Western countries."
The leader of the junior party in the coalition, Andrej Danko, said on TV on Sunday that the Office would be abolished altogether. "Most likely, the Special Prosecutor's Office will be attached to the Prosecutor-General's Office," said Danko. He said the scrapping of the Special Prosecutor's Office should eliminate chaos and duplication in the system.
Danko said he also objects to the existence of the Specialised Criminal Court (STS). "Everything special is sick," he thinks. But on that issue, he is alone in the coalition.
We don’t know precisely what the government has in mind.
The newspaper Dennik N and several members of parliament say they have seen differing versions of the proposal circulated in Brussels. In the mildest form, the cases of the prosecutors of the Special Prosecutor's Office would be divided among the regional prosecutor's offices. The prosecutors themselves would become part of the General Prosecutor's Office, and there they would be tasked with dealing with completely different cases.
(TASR, RTVS, Dennik N, other)
