BRATISLAVA, September 23, (WEBNOVINY) — The Supreme Court called media reports on the possibility of judges to work from home biased and deceptive. It alleges that this media campaign is here to give an excuse to the Justice Ministry to cancel this possibility. “Though 97 percent of judges use this option, it does not necessarily mean in practice that all of them are at home,” says the Supreme Court. The Judicial Council of the Supreme Court granted the request of Supreme Court President Stefan Harabin on September 19, who asked for approval of his application to work from home every week on Mondays and Fridays. The Supreme Court argues in its Friday’s stance that after he took over as Supreme Court President, Harabin decided in twelve demanding case on the merits involving organized crime – the „acid gang“ murders or contract murderers. In these cases he and his senate definitively confirmed life sentences for several charged. The stance stresses that Harabin decided in extremely difficult cases and extensive case files. “Already in the first year in his post, Harabin decided more cases on their merit than his predecessor Milan Karabin for the whole five-year term,” points out the stance.
The Supreme Court also underscored that Harabin participates in trials though Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska proposed to adopt a law prohibiting this to court chairmen. So far he has not used the opportunity to work from home, continues the Supreme Court adding that despite this the same questions are centrally asked again and again by some journalists with the aim to scandalize Harabin’s application to work from home.
The Justice Ministry says in general that home office of judges is directly connected with the performance of the judge post, involving mainly preparation of reasoning of the decisions. “However, fulfillment of legal duties of court chairmen can ,be according to us, hardly restricted to a few days in a week and be carried from the living room,” is the Justice Ministry’s response to this dispute.
SITA