The Speaker of the National Assembly has publicly announced that she will protect “all Members of Parliament” from criminal charges if the police initiate pre-trial proceedings against them. But the former judge and lawyer apparently does not know that the Parliamentary Inquiries Act protects the chair and members of a National Assembly Commission only as witnesses before the courts. Mojca Šetinc Pašek, an MP of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) and chair of the Commission of Inquiry, has found herself a suspect in criminal proceedings.
The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, has apparently been informed that the Chair of the National Assembly’s Commission of Inquiry, Mojca Šetinc Pašek, who is investigating suspicions of illegal financing of political parties, has found herself in pre-trial proceedings directed by the State Prosecutor’s Office. As a suspect. Which is not just an ordinary criminal charge.
The former judge has problems understanding the rules
On Friday, Klakočar Zupančič therefore announced that “as the first female Speaker of the Slovenian Parliament, I will, in accordance with the Parliamentary Investigations Act, protect all Members of Parliament, regardless of political affiliation, from criminal charges brought with the obvious intention of putting pressure on the work of the Commissions of Inquiry and intimidating individual members of the Commissions of Inquiry.” If the police initiate pre-trial proceedings and wish to take any action with MPs related to their work and conduct in the Commission of Inquiry, such as talk about abuses and false denunciations, they will only be able to do so “with my consent,” Klakočar Zupančič said. If necessary, however, she will endeavour, in accordance with the Constitution and the law, to ensure that the National Assembly strictly respects the immunity of every Member of Parliament. The latter are not criminally liable for the lawful performance of their duties or for serving on working bodies of the National Assembly, such as the Commission of Inquiry.
She further stated that, as Speaker of the National Assembly, she was obliged to protect the integrity of the National Assembly and its working bodies, such as the Commissions of Inquiry, as well as that of all the Members of the National Assembly, regardless of their political affiliation, provided, of course, that they carried out their work in accordance with the law and within the framework of the decisions taken by the working body as a collective body. As she explained, the filing of criminal charges can be a way of intimidating Members and Commissions of Inquiry, which she will not tolerate – in order to protect the integrity of the legislative body.
The Speaker of the National Assembly has clearly misinterpreted the provisions of the Act on Parliamentary Inquiries, which stipulates that the chairperson and members of a Commission of Inquiry may not testify before a court or other authorities without the authorisation of the Speaker of the National Assembly. The law only refers to the role of witnesses before courts and other authorities, not to a situation where the chairperson or members of the Commission of Inquiry become suspects. This has led the Speaker of the National Assembly to go far beyond the powers that she has under the law. Let us not forget, however, that this is a former judge who has repeatedly argued vehemently before MPs that she alone has the right to interpret the rules. Klakočar Zupančič also claimed that she would protect MPs of “all colours” with immunity, which she did not do in the case of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) MP Zoran Mojškerc, who was reported to the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK) by the very Commission of Mojca Šetinc Pašek for not answering questions from this political body of the left.
The political Commission is fishing in troubled waters
The Chair of the Commission of Inquiry and ousted member of the Freedom Movement, Mojca Šetinc Pašek, has been waging a fierce campaign against the opposition SDS party, adopting an interim report which claims that companies, including Nova24TV, were financed by commissions and returned favours to the SDS party. Which is a big lie, and among other things, the Commission’s investigations were grossly overreaching and even investigated private companies that are not part of the media. More criminal charges filed by the directors of these companies are expected as a result of the overreaching of information outside the investigative remit of the Commission. Meanwhile, the Chair of the Commission of Inquiry has already been criminally charged by the director of some of the media companies, Boris Tomasič, and the procedure is already being directed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. He said that the Commission of Inquiry did not even hear him, which is a clear violation of the principles of fair procedure, but the Commission has already issued a decision with an interim report.
It is also worth noting that the Commission of Inquiry also took a close look at the case of tax advisor Rok Snežič and his alleged links with the SDS party. This was not to Snežič’s liking, who reported to the Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office suspicions of several criminal offences committed by the Chairwoman of the Commission, MP Šetinc Pašek, including abuse of official position or official rights, abuse of authority, misuse of personal data and misconduct in public office. According to Snežič, Šetinc Pašek “more than obviously” seriously abused her position by leading the investigation against him as Chair of the National Assembly’s Commission of Inquiry. Under the Constitution, the National Assembly can order an investigation into matters of public importance. “My business abroad, as stated by Pašek, with Bosnian citizens, is not a matter of public interest,” Snežič believes. He stressed that he is neither a politician, nor a member of a political party, nor a public official, nor a public servant, nor a recipient of budget funds.
Andrej Žitnik
