A former Advocate General at the European Union's Court of Justice in Luxembourg, Slovakian Jan Mazak has the humor and calm of those with their career behind them, who have seen it all before. At 69, the president of Slovakia's Judicial Council is to be ejected from his seat any day now. "They could take the decision at any moment. All it takes is a simple majority vote in Parliament," he said with a smile, sitting securely on a sofa in the magnificent historic headquarters of his institution in central Bratislava on Thursday, December 7.
"They" refers to the new government majority formed around infamous Prime Minister Robert Fico. He returned to power at the end of October, having already twice led this Central European country, between 2006 and 2018. This ultraconservative, pro-Russian, anti-migrant left-wing leader is implicated in multiple corruption scandals. Barely appointed, he has launched a lightning crusade against all police officers, magistrates and journalists who dared investigate him and his entourage over the last three years, the brief period he spent in opposition.
"Several people like me now have a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, because he'll do anything to obtain his impunity and wants to copy Hungary," said this magistrate. Mazak is among the targets because, during his term of office, he set up an internal commission to punish some of his colleagues who were involved in one of the many corruption cases that have come to light in recent years. This "clean hands" operation led to the indictment of some 15 judges and the departure of a handful of these, but it has also earned him some solid enemies.
The work of cleaning up a state where Fico had allowed the mafia to infiltrate at the highest level was still far from over when his victory in the September 29 elections – followed by his return to power a few weeks later – brutally plunged this country of 5.5 million inhabitants back into its past of widespread impunity. Under investigation for months for involvement in an organized crime group, the Slovak leader immediately launched what the political opposition and NGOs are already describing as a "vendetta" against all those who might have sent him to prison.
Just days after being appointed, he began by ousting some 20 police officers who had investigated him and those close to him. "They clearly want to destroy all the sensitive cases we were investigating," said one investigator who fell victim to this purge and who applied for and obtained whistleblower status to avoid being dismissed. Even the courageous police officer Peter Juhas – known throughout Slovakia for having identified and brought to justice the presumed mastermind in the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, in 2018 – was dismissed from the police department, just six days after Fico came to power...
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