Prague, June 15 (CTK) – Prime Minister Andrej Babis has sued Slovakia at the European Human Rights Court over his registration as a Communist StB secret service agent, after his appellate review petition was rejected, the server Seznam Zpravy said today.
Babis says he was registered as an StB agent unrightfully and he had sued the Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute (UPN), where the documents are stored.
Babis turned to the European court after he failed with his appellate review petition to the Supreme Court.
The Slovak Justice Ministry then said every citizen had the right to turn with a complaint to the European Human Rights Court.
The Slovak representative at the court, Marica Pirosikova, told CTK earlier if the complaint were successful, this would open the road to a new trial in Slovakia as its courts would be bound by the verdict.
“I base it (the complaint) on having won three trials. For incomprehensible reasons, the Constitutional Court decided closely before the election that we sued a wrong institution,” Babis told journalists.
He said he was convinced that the Slovak Constitutional Court had harmed his rights.
Jan Hamacek, the leader of the Czech Social Democrats, said he did not consider Babis’s step usual.
Earlier today, the Social Democrats decided to form a government along with Babis’s ANO.
“From the viewpoint of foreign policy I do not consider this usual. I do not know any other case in which a senior elected official sued a different country, so close as Slovakia in addition,” Hamacek said.
The Slovak lower-level court previously ruled in favour of Babis, but the Slovak Constitutional Court cancelled the definitive verdicts of the regional and supreme courts.
The US ruled that the UPN should not be the defendant in the disputes over the registration in the StB archives, which was a breakthrough verdict.
The Regional Court in Bratislava rejected Babis’s lawsuit challenging as unrightful his registration as an StB agent in February. Babis filed a petition for appellate review of the verdict, which the Supreme Courts turned down.
In the Czech Republic, opposition has criticised Babis over what it calls collaboration with the StB. The case is also one of the topics highlighted at public rallies against Babis repeatedly held in several Czech towns recently.
The UPN, which administers the StB files in Slovakia, said the publication of the transcribed documents of the former StB had been ordered to it by the law.
According to archive documents, Babis became an StB confidant in 1980. In 1982, he was won over for cooperation with the StB as an agent, codenamed Bures.
However, Babis has denied the allegations and he has several times turned to courts over his plea.
A verdict by the European Human Rights Court cannot reverse the decision of the judiciary in one of the 47 European countries. It can only say that the given state breached the human rights when assessing the relevant case.