The opposition Movement Slovakia considers the amendment to the Criminal Code from the workshop of the Ministry of Justice, which was approved by the government on Wednesday, as another attempt to weaken investigations into corruption and organized crime. The amendment was also criticized by the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS). The approval of the new Civil Code was also expressed.
“Minister of Justice Boris Susko (Smer-SD) presented another law, the sole purpose of which is to discourage people from cooperating in uncovering organized crime, corruption and economic crime. He pretends that he does not know who the amendment concerns, but the truth is simple – he wants to help Tibor Gašpar, Norbert Bödör and other defendants from the Purgatory case,” declared the member of the Slovak National Council Gábor Grendel (Slovakia – For the people).
According to him, the proof of expediency is also the fact that the amendment is intended to affect court proceedings that have already started. “If the law is to apply only from November, why did Susko set it to apply to already open cases as well? There is only one answer – the government wants to save the defendants, who were not helped by the previous amendments,” Grendel pointed out.
Former Minister of the Interior Roman Mikulec (Slovakia – For the People) pointed out that the proposal will fundamentally weaken the fight against the mafia. “If the state takes away the incentive for cooperating defendants to testify, no one will testify against organized groups anymore. The government is giving a clear signal that he doesn’t want to investigate corruption or organized crime – he wants to help criminals,” Mikulec said. The leader of the movement, Igor Matovič, stated that the government is neglecting its promises to the citizens and is prioritizing the criminal protection of the Deputy Chairman of the NR SR Tibor Gašpar (Smer-SD).
Member of the NR SR Zuzana Števulová (PS) pointed out that the government is going to change the institute of penitents for the third time in two and a half years of government. According to her, this is the primary agenda of the current government. “The government has no moral right to change these criminal law provisions at a time when people close to them are facing criminal legal proceedings. There is simply an irrefutable suspicion that they do so only and only because to help these people,” she said in response to a reporter’s question at Wednesday’s press conference.
He considers the new Civil Code to be a fundamental legal regulation affecting the legal relations of the majority of Slovak citizens. According to her, there was little time for such a fundamental change for discussion and comments from members of parliament and the public. At the same time, according to the deputy, there should have been more time for the change to take effect, so that people had time to prepare for it. According to her, the PS is still restrained in relation to the new Civil Code, and its position will depend on the form of the proposal in the second reading.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the government approved the draft amendment to the Criminal Code. The criminal code is supposed to move to a system of benefits in the form of an extraordinary reduction of the sentence, or waiver of the punishment of a cooperating person, always only in the judicial phase of criminal proceedings after the filing of an indictment or a proposal for a plea agreement.
It also approved the new Civil Code, which is supposed to be a central general code of private law with a wide scope. It should include the largest possible range of private law relationships.
