MICHALOVCE, September 26, (WEBNOVINY) — At its session in Michalovce on Wednesday, the Cabinet decided to replace three members of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic who are nominated by the Cabinet. It made the decision at the proposal of Justice Minister Tomas Borec. Based on this decision, current members Ludmila Babjakova, Josef Vozar, and Alexander Brostl will be replaced by Eva Fulcova, Jaroslav Chlebovic, and Lubos Sadovsky. The dismissed members will end in their office today; new members will take up their posts on Thursday, September 27.
„The Cabinet has the right to dismiss those members of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic it appointed and do so before the expiration of their term in office,“ Prime Minister Robert Fico said at a press conference after the Cabinet session. He denied that the reason was that the dismissed members of the Judicial Council were hard opponents of its Chairman and Supreme Court President Stefan Harabin. Fico said that they were replaced because they were political nominees of the previous government. According to his assurances, the new members are nominated from among judges.
In January 2011, the previous government of Iveta Radicova replaced three members of the Judicial Council – before the end of their five-year term. It removed from office Richard Molnar, Daniel Hudak, and Viliam Dohnansky, who were appointed in 2007 and 2009 by the government of Robert Fico. It replaced them by Ludmila Babjakova of Kosice Regional Court, who was a signatory of the judicial initiative For Open Judiciary, Josef Vozar, lawyer and staff member of the Institute of State and Law of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and a former judge of the Constitutional Court and a professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Pavol Jozef Safarik in Kosice Alexander Brostl.
The Judicial Council has seventeen members and a chairman. Eight are elected and dismissed by judges, three by parliament, three by the cabinet, and three by the president. Powers of the Judicial Council include, in addition to decisions on the assigning and transferring of judges, submitting nominations for judges to the Cabinet, who should represent the Slovak Republic in international judicial bodies, election of members and chairmen of disciplinary senates, and election of the President of the Supreme Court, who at the same time is also the chairperson of the Judicial Council. At present, it is the former Minister of Justice, Stefan Harabin.
SITA