Slovak president asks Constitutional Court to solve conflict with Prosecutor General

Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka has been using a controversial paragraph 363 to cancel corruption indictments, including of former Prime Minister Robert Fico, and has refused to share the decisions with President Zuzana Čaputová, who has asked the Constitutional Court for clarification.

During his confirmation hearings, Žilinka criticised the paragraph but has been making common use of it since coming into office. A new analysis by Denník N shows that, since 2021, Žilinka’s office has cancelled 29 indictments made by the Special Prosecutor, of which only five were not cases of prominent people.

The president has asked the Prosecutor General to send over these decisions, but he has refused, arguing that the Constitution does not force him to cooperate, which has led her to ask the Constitutional Court for clarification.

“In the President’s view, the Prosecutor General’s legitimacy derives primarily from his appointment by the President. Therefore, it is constitutionally legitimate and foreseeable that the President, while ensuring the proper functioning of the constitutional organs, also has adequate constitutional power of control over the activities of the Prosecutor General,” the president’s spokesman said.

Čaputová argues that since she has the power to discipline the Prosecutor General, she needs to be able to review his work. The president’s actions suggest that she is considering using this right, which could result in him losing his job, in case she is able to prove “grave misconduct”.

The European Commission has argued in its annual Rule of Law report that paragraph 363 should be limited, as it gives the Prosecutor General power to cancel indictments, a decision that cannot be overturned. At the time, Žilinka slammed the report and was joined by Fico.

For his part, Žilinka argues that the rate of usage of the paragraph has not gone up since he took office. Denník N’s analysis shows that this is because the overall number of requests has gone up. The 363 first became a political topic in 2021, when Žilinka used it to get rid of charges of a prominent businessman connected to Smer, Jaroslav Haščák, and Secret Service Director Vladimír Pčolinský.

(Barbara Zmušková | Euractiv.sk)