The principle ne bis in idem, also known asthe prohibition of double jeopardy, does not preclude the issue of a European arrest warrant against persons accused of abducting the son of a former Slovak President. This stems from a ruling published by the Court of Justice of the European Union on Thursday (16 December). This means that criminal proceedings can continue and there is nothing to prevent a European arrest warrant being issued for the accused.
After almost two decades, Slovak authorities in 2017 reopened a case in which 13 people, including Ivan Lexa, the former head of the Slovak Information Service, were accused of involvement in the 1995 kidnapping of the son of the then head of state, Michal Kovac, to Austria. However, their conviction for the offence was prevented three years later by an amnesty issued by then Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar, who also temporarily held some presidential posts. Before the abduction, President Kovac was very critical of Meciar. Thus many attributed responsibility for the kidnapping to the state secret service, whose intention was to intimidate Kovac. It was not until 5 April 2017 that MPs succeeded in revoking Meciar's amnesties. MPs also resolved that the acts that were amnestied would not be time-barred.
The Bratislava III District Court, before which those proceedings have been brought, intends to issue a European arrest warrant against one of the accused persons. In that context, it asked the Court of Justice, in essence, whether it was compatible with EU law. Earlier this year, Juliane Kokott, the court's lawyer, concluded that the amnesties may have ended the prosecution once, but they did not permanently exonerate the accused people from the charges. By revoking the amnesties in 2017, the Slovak parliament opened the possibility for new prosecutions.
