Controversial head of the Supreme Court and the Judicial Council, Stefan Harabin, suffered a blow yesterday as his normally obedient judges did not vote the way he wanted.
Harabin put forward a motion to the Judicial Council to take disciplinary action and dismiss three judges, a typical approach by Harabin to anyone not on his side or posing a threat. Even though the Judicial Council has passed every single motion put forward by Harabin to date, this time his scheme was rejected.
The three constitutional judges being attacked by Harabin this time, Jan Luby, Ludmila Gajdosikova and Ladislav Orosz, are set to decide on another petition for disciplinary action against Harabin, initiated by his arch-enemy, justice minister Lucia Zitnanska. An earlier petition saw Harabin penalised by losing 70% of his annual salary.
The Judicial Council, which has obeyed Harabin’s will to date, rejected the dismissal proposals this time because the link between the case against him and the judges in question was too obvious even for them to deny.