Judicial reform will not curb judges independence, says state sec y - parl debate

Budapest, November 3 (MTI) - Hungary s judicial reform will stand its ground in international comparison and will not curtail the independence of judges, State Secretary of Justice Robert Repassy told Parliament on Thursday.

Measures are designed to accelerate court procedures and enhance legal security, he said, opening a discussion of the bill on the reorganisation of the judiciary and the legal status of judges.

He said a long-held expectation, both in Hungary and abroad, had been that the courts should follow uniform legal practice and pass their rulings within a reasonable time, irrespective of their location.

Repassy said that for this reason the government was proposing a new model for the judiciary, guaranteeing a more equitable division of workload between the courts. The centralised administration will be given extensive powers and means over staff management, including a concentrated human-resources management, the transfer of judges positions and a broader opportunity for delegating judges to cases, he said.

The state secretary noted the plan to separate the leadership of the courts themselves and their administration. The Curia, which is to replace the Supreme Court, will see to the former, while the new National Justice Office (OBH), to replace the National Justice Council (OIT), will supervise the latter.

To date, both the Supreme Court and OIT have been presided by Chief Judge Andras Baka.

The OBH head, to be elected by a two-thirds majority in Parliament, will guide the operative work of judges and assist in speeding up their cases by, for example, assigning cases to less burdened courts, said the state secretary.

Repassy said that the military prosecution will be eliminated and military prosecutors will be incorporated into the main judicial system.

Addressing the session, Baka, who is also head of the National Justice Council, said that draft cardinal laws which formed part of the judicial reform package would provide the OBH president with unlimited, non-transparent and uncontrollable powers.

Peter Polt, the chief public prosecutor, said the new regulations are modern and up to European standards in all respects. He said the new system will be built around the central element of protecting "public interests" and will abandon earlier, more abstract ideas of justice.

The co-ruling Christian Democratic Party supported while the main opposition Socialists, radical nationalist Jobbik and the green opposition LMP opposed the proposals for changing the judicial system.

Gyorgy Rubovszky, of the Christian Democrats, rejected the idea that the OBH president would have absolute power, saying that the OBT, a planned new body, would have the power to supervise the head of the OBH.

Gergely Barandy, a spokesman for the main opposition Socialists, said the proposal was a part of measures to tip the system of checks and balances and put an official loyal to the government in place for nine years.

Jobbik lawmaker Csaba Gyure said the proposal for a new judicial system evoked "feudal relations", and that it was a part of a tendency since Fidesz had gained a two-thirds mandate in parliament to "suspend democratic institutions in Hungary" and to systematically curtail the fundamentals of a constitutional state.

Andras Schiffer, parliamentary group leader of LMP, said the proposal would integrate the judiciary into a centralised model for the state. He also rejected the claim that Hungarian judicial procedures were slow in comparison to other European countries.

Transparency International Hungary (TI), an anti-graft watchdog, said in a letter addressed to lawmakers that the plans risked embedding corruption into the judicial system and would not serve the desired aims of boosting efficiency while safeguarding the independence and political impartiality of judges.