Opposition MPs are pressing for calling an extraordinary session of Parliament's defence and security committee on what they call the "scandalous course of action of judicial authorities" in the case of convicted drug trafficker Baki Sadiki. The legislators, spearheaded by Independent MP Daniel Lipšic, are shocked by a ruling by Presov Regional Court that, citing an incorrect procedural regulation, has overturned a district court decision of 2011 according to which Kosovar Albanian Baki Sadiki was convicted of drug-trafficking and sentenced to 22 years in prison in Slovakia.
The court has ruled that Sadiki will remain in prison and the district court is now obliged to resume the proceedings on the basis of the original criminal complaint – in other words, Sadiki will get a retrial. “The regional and district courts used absurd reasoning to justify the annulment of the ruling and renewal of the trial ... It appears as though somebody pulled out all the stops to set the convicted drug dealer free, which constitutes a number of security risks,” said Lipšic. Sadiki was sentenced to a 22-year jail term in absentia in September 2011, as he had fled the country prior to the ruling. He was eventually captured by Interpol in Kosovo in October 2012 and then extradited to Slovakia in December of the same year.
