The Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic has decided in the case of the disciplinary accused judge of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic, JUDr. Juraj Kliment

The disciplinary accused JUDr. Juraj Kliment as a judge of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic was found guilty of a disciplinary offence in relation to one of the acts by the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic in relation to the proposal of the Minister of Justice of the Slovak Republic and was acquitted from the disciplinary proposal in relation to two of the acts. The Minister of Justice proposed to remove the disciplinary accused from his position as a judge. The Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic did not impose a disciplinary measure on the judge (Case No. 33D/6/2024).

The disciplinary accused should have committed misconduct by stating, as the President of Chamber 5T of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic, during the oral reasoning of the custody order, “The reopening of this investigation is such a message to all those persons that no such act will remain uninvestigated in the future, nor will specific criminal liability of specific persons remain unproven … At the same time, it is a finger raised to all those persons if they would like to continue in this trend.”

The Disciplinary Chamber finds that the judge’s conduct culpably breached the obligation to refrain from anything that might undermine confidence in the independent, impartial and fair decision-making of the courts, the obligation to ensure that his conduct does not call his impartiality into question in order to safeguard the independence and impartiality of the exercise of his judicial function, and the obligation to observe the principles of judicial ethics.

The disciplinary measure was not imposed on the judge of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic, as the disciplinary petition in this part was filed late, but the disciplinary accused insisted on the hearing of the act.

On the remaining two acts concerning the statements contained in the interview that JUDr. Juraj Kliment gave in June 2024 to the newspaper SME and the vote of the disciplinary accused as a member of Senate 5T of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic for the resolution on taking him into custody before the decision on the objection of bias against his person in the given case was made, the Chamber of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic decided to acquit the disciplinary accused, as the acts in question do not constitute a disciplinary offence.

This decision may be appealed by the applicant – the Minister of Justice.

The decision of the Disciplinary Chamber was adopted by a vote of 5:0.

In the disciplinary case of the Minister of Justice of the Slovak Republic c/a Judge Juraj Kliment, Chamber No 33D decided: the President: Mgr. Kristína Babiaková, Judges: JUDr. Viola Takáčová, PhD. LL.M., prof. JUDr. PhDr. Peter Potásch, PhD., Presiding judges: JUDr. Michaela Kajabová; JUDr. František Sedlačko.