Political scores should be settled at the ballot box, not in the courtroom.
Turning a blind eye to Slovakia’s abuse of the judiciary means turning our back on the rule of law.
In February 2020, the OLaNO party swept to victory in the Slovakian elections, promising to bring change and an end to corruption. Instead, it has brought chaos. Its management of the Covid-19 pandemic was shambolic. Its first prime minister, Igor Matovic, had to resign after cozying up to Russia. Matovic’s handpicked successor, current PM Eduard Heger, is barely holding his battered coalition together.
Instead of trying to win back Slovakians’ trust, the government in Bratislava is using the judiciary to go after the political opposition, sparking a snowballing rule of law crisis in the heart of the EU.Instead of trying to win back Slovakians’ trust, the government in Bratislava is using the judiciary to go after the political opposition, sparking a snowballing rule of law crisis in the heart of the EU.
have set up a “factory” to produce witnesses for the government. Indicted individuals are psychologically pressured into flipping and testifying against others in exchange for leniency.
from both Slovakia and abroad have warned that the testimony from these flipped witnesses can’t be relied upon, but the system has proven popular both with alleged criminals hoping for lighter punishment and with prosecutors lacking more substantive proof.
from people accused of serious financial crimes, such as entrepreneur Michal Suchoba and former financial administration head Frantisek Imrezce, is being treated as a core piece of evidence in major cases despite glaring inconsistencies in their statements. Some flipped witnesses, meanwhile, are testifying in an extraordinary number of cases
Lipsic’s industrial-scale witness factory may be good at producing testimony, but at the expense of confidence in the Slovakian judiciary.
Slovakia’s anti-corruption campaign has lost all credibility due to its reliance on a biased prosecutor and unreliable witnesses. The botched crackdown has sparked a serious rule of law crisis which should raise international alarm about the state of democracy and human rights in Slovakia.
Media freedom has been curtailed, with Reporters without Borders warning that proposals by the Slovakian government could lead to censorship and arbitrary prosecutions of journalists.
Other fundamental rights and freedoms are also under attack in Slovakia. In their zeal to find evidence against Robert Fico, investigators covertly filmed the former PM and leaked the tapes to the media in a remarkable breach of privacy.
The Constitutional Court has already identified sixteen significant violations tied to the witness factory. Nine individuals have been found dead under questionable circumstances over the past two years, highlighting the terrible consequences of the psychological pressure put on the detainees in this witness production system.
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