Head of the Supreme Court Stefan Harabin is no stranger to suing money out of those who use his name, and in the latest ruling of the District Court of Bratislava he has been awarded EUR 150,000 plus interest in compensation from the Attorney General’s Office over a recording allegedly involving a close conversation between Harabin and Albanian drug mafia boss, Baki Sadiki.
Harabin’s claim against the Attorney General’s Office is based on how former attorney general Dobroslav Trnka included the recording as part of the investigation dossier, publishing a transcript of it, and so Harbin claims it was false evidence as the recording was not authenticated. This even though the Bratislava Regional Court, which ruled on the case, never declared the recording a fake, according to SME daily today.
Harabin will therefore rake in EUR 150,000 plus a massive 9% in interest (approx. EUR 37,000), unless the Attorney General’s Office is successful with the appeal it plans to lodge. Harabin is holding up the ruling as proof that the recording is fake, but the court never determined whether it was or not.
The ruling was made back in September, but it is only now, when Sadiki was captured in Kosovo on an international arrest warrant, that Harabin spoke out about his latest success, which he can add to to the hundreds of thousands of euro he has so far managed to sue from various media. The Slovak Republic is hoping to have Sadiki extradited on drug trafficking charges, but as the country has always refused to recognise Kosovo’s sovereignty, this might prove complicated.
Supreme Court head Stefan Harabin received EUR 100,000 for a caricature from daily Pravda back in 2006, and with other lawsuits he has claimed an estimated EUR 181,000 over the space of three years. He is currently suing also public broadcaster RTVS for around EUR 400,000 in another libel case.
So the Attorney general has some evidence, presents it as part of his duties and his office is being sued? Is it because the evidence was used improperly as part of a political smear campaign?
It’s no wonder he doesn’t do the job he’s paid to do!
I get the feeling very soon, there will be yet another Slowvakian legal executive with a bit of lead in his ear ?