BRATISLAVA, August 5, (WEBNOVINY) – The Parliamentary Constitutional and Judicial Committee recommended the deputies to discuss the draft amendment to the penal code in parliament in an expedited procedure. The draft legal norm was shaped to prevent criminal cases bouncing around between the courts and the prosecution like a ping-pong ball. The Justice Ministry wants to prevent a legal norm adopted by the previous parliament from coming into force. According to that norm, as of September 1, courts would be able to return a criminal motion to the prosecutor basically for any reason, which would inappropriately prolong the criminal proceedings, stated Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska
“We want to return to the original situation, so that courts can return a case to the prosecutor for further investigation only on the account of a procedural error,” explained Zitnanska. She considers the proposal to debate the draft norm in expedited procedure to be well-founded, since it aims to protect people against the inappropriate extension of criminal prosecution. The minister underscored that the proposal to change the legislation came from the judicial sphere. “Concerned authorities have voiced their concern that hundreds, thousands of issues would be returned to the prosecution, which would halt the continuity of a process,” she remarked.
Deputies for the opposition SMER-SD party Mojmir Mamojka and Robert Madej do not see a reason to approve the draft in a shortened legislative procedure. Mamojka believes that it reduces the quality of the legislative process.
On the contrary, coalition deputies Radovan Prochazka (KDH), Jana Dubovcova (SDKU), and Ondrej Dostal (OKS) think that the conditions to approve a legislation piece in expedited procedure have been fulfilled. According to them, there is a real threat that people would stand in front of courts much later and their legal uncertainty would increase.
SITA