* Anti-corruption court deemed unconstitutional
* Junior ruling factions call for abolition of court
* PM wants to preserve the Special Court
By Peter Laca
BRATISLAVA, May 21 (Reuters) - Slovakia's ruling parties
clashed on Thursday over whether to scrap a special court
dealing with organised crime and corruption.
Corruption and shady connections between political factions
and business are common in central and eastern Europe, a region
that is still building independent institutions two decades
after the fall of communist rule.
A junior Slovak government party, the HZDS, said the Special
Court must be abolished following a Constitutional Court ruling
which it was illegal for it to pay its judges extraordinary
salaries and to demand background checks.
"The (HZDS) considers the Special Court to be a non-standand
and ineffective part of the Slovak judiciary," said the party of
former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, whose government in 1990s
was criticised by the West for crony privatisations and crack
downs on the opposition.
"Politicians and political parties should respect the
verdict ... which stated that creation of the Special Court
violates the Constitution," HZDS said in a statement.
The second junior faction, the far-right Slovak National
Party, supported scrapping the court.
But Prime Minister Robert Fico defended the institution,
which has convicted a mayor for taking bribes and also gangsters
who had dissolved victims in barrels of acid.
"It is our duty to respect the verdict of the Constitutional
Court, and, if it is possible, to act upon this verdict with
legislative amendments so that the Special Court can exist,"
Fico told a news conference.
When created in 2004, the previous centre-right government
said the Special Court had the advantage of being outside
regional structures and better protection of its staff by police
units, eliminating the chances of external influence.
In the European Union, only Italy, Ireland and Spain have
similar specialised courts, said the Slovak Justice Ministry,
which has campaigned against the Slovak Special Court.
Global corruption watchdog, Transparency International, has
long criticised attacks against the Special Court, and said its
abolition would be a step back in the fight against corruption.
"This court has proven that it is not afraid of politicians
or the mafia," said Emilia Sicakova-Beblava, the head of
Transparency International Slovakia.
"A key factor was that its creation had broken ties between
local structures, and their influence over local courts."
Last year, the EU froze millions of euros in aid to Bulgaria
because of corruption and crime. In April, the bloc's executive
commission started a probe into an a tender worth 120 million
euro for services related to handling EU funds in Slovakia.
(Additional reporting by Martin Santa; Editing by Angus
MacSwan)
