Štefan Minárik Leaves the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic

We addressed to the Supreme Court of the Slovak republic its critical statement concerning the presence of the former judge Štefan Minárik in this Court. According to a statement of Daniela Švecová from 21 of January 2016 the administration of the court and the judge Minárik made an agreement on the termination of his contract by 30 of June 2016. We consider this decision as being a very important step.

We addressed to the Supreme Court our concerns, pointing out to the fact that even though Štefan Minárik is not exercising the function of a judge, still his presence in the Supreme Court is problematic. „We perceive this question as being deeply ethical and we consider that in the democracy and the rule of law a person with this kind of personal past should not have a place in the Supreme Court.“ states Milan Šagát, executive director of VIA IURIS. Presence of Štefan Minárik in the Supreme Court does not contribute to increase the confidence of the public in courts either in the principle of justice.

On the basis of our request for the statement the president of the Supreme Court of the Slovak republic informed us on 21 of January 2016, that she was aware of the past career of Štefan Minárik and she agreed absolutely with the fact that he should not work at the Supreme Court anymore. Daniela Švecová also informed us, that they made an agreement with Štefan Minárik that by 30 of June 2016 he would finish working at the Supreme Court of the Slovak republic.

We appreciate this step very much as Štefan Minárik is closely connected to a regrettable part of modern history of Slovakia.

Project “Personality of the judge – the key good judiciary” was supported by the sum of 104 925.10 euros from the NGO Fund, which is financed by the EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014. The Fund is managed by Nadácia otvorenej spoločnosti – Open Society Foundation. The project aims to develop advocacy and watchdog activities and increase quality of selection of court officials and judges, as well as raise awareness and public sensitivity to problems of Slovak judiciary.