BRATISLAVA, June 22, (WEBNOVINY)- The strongest opposition party, SMER-SD, will probably not support a proposal to cancel the so-called “Meciar’s amnesties” in parliament. Party leader Robert Fico told a news conference on Wednesday that he can not imagine anybody from the SMER deputy club voting for their scrapping. “We have a problem with amnesties from the moral viewpoint, but we still hold the legal opinion that it is not possible to cancel amnesties,” said Fico. He, however, did not forget to say that after the amnesties were published in the Collection of Laws, the party condemned them as moral mud.
Fico proposes adoption of a constitutional law instead that would condemn Meciar’s amnesties. It would not bring about any legal consequences but would take the form of a declaratory condemnation. The party has already hinted at such a solution to the Christian-Democrats, who were initiators of the sixth attempt to scrap the Meciar’s amnesties, which cover persons believed to have been involved in the abduction of ex-president Michal Kovac’s son abroad back in 1995. “A declaratory condemnation would be a great step,” believes Fico.
The SMER-SD leader Robert Fico ruled out any agreement between his party and the coalition according to which SMR-SD would support cancellation of amnesties in exchange for coalition support for his party’s state citizenship draft. “If agreements were concluded between the opposition and the coalition, they would have to be done so at the chairman level. No agreements exist. It would be harmful to connect topics that have nothing in common,” stated Fico.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Cabinet supported reversing Meciar’s amnesties and approved the draft constitutional bill submitted by a group of ruling coalition deputies. At the end of May, parliament moved the draft constitutional bill to the second reading with the vote of 85 deputies, but in order to finally approve the draft, five more votes will be necessary in June. Ninety votes are required to pass a draft constitutional bill. Only Jan Pociatek for the opposition SMER-SD supported the bill, along with all SNS deputies present.
In the past, opposition leader Robert Fico opposed reversing the amnesties, saying that even if they are immoral, they must not be reversed, which the European Court for Human Rights confirmed, as well.
Deputy Speaker of Parliament Pavol Hrusovsky (KDH) sees hope that a historic decision can be made in case of the draft constitutional bill to reverse the so-called Meciar’s amnesties. According to Interior Minister Lipsic (KDH), if opposition representatives talk of justice, they have to put their deeds where their mouth is. He said that also SMER-SD deputies voted for the bill in the committees and thus now the chance to approve it is the biggest, but they have to express their will in vote as well.
This is already the sixth attempt to cancel the amnesties granted by Vladimir Meciar. Meciar, leader of the now non-parliamentary party LS-HZDS and former three-time prime minister, granted amnesties during his brief presidential incumbency to protect unknown perpetrators involved in the case of abduction of former President Michal Kovac’s son to Austria in 1995. Investigators believed that former boss of the Slovak intelligence service SIS Ivan Lexa masterminded the kidnapping.
Ex-spy boss Ivan Lexa, once the most wanted Slovak fugitive, was facing charges of several serious criminal cases including abduction, sabotage, robbery, treason, misuse of power and other white-collar crimes. In addition, he was accused of having ordered the murder of Robert Remias in March 1996 by underworld boss Miroslav Sykora. Ivan Lexa was alleged to have done this to prevent witnesses from testifying about Slovak President Michal Kovac’s son’s abduction to Austria in 1995. However, in the most serious charges issued against him, Ivan Lexa is shielded by Meciar granted amnesties.
SITA