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| - Slovak lawmakers on Wednesday approved measures aimed at weeding out corruption in the judiciary, a key priority of the government elected on a wave of protests over the 2018 murder of a journalist probing graft. The investigation into the gangland-style murder of Jan Kuciak as he probed the murky activities of a well-connected businessman resulted in the sacking of more than a dozen judges on suspicion of corruption and other wrongdoing. "This murder was undoubtedly a catalyst for fundamental changes in justice," political analyst Juraj Marusiak of the Slovak Academy of Sciences told AFP, explaining what triggered the changes. Introduced by the centre-right government of Igor Matovic, the reforms include tightening checks on the property disclosures of judges and a special new court designed to serve as a disciplinary body for them. The reforms also introduce a fixed retirement age for judges: 67 years for lower court justices and 72 years for those on the Constitutional Court. Most of the changes will take effect on January 1, 2021. The reforms were passed by 89 MPs out of 139 present, while 18 were opposed. President Zuzana Caputova, a liberal and lawyer by training, said she will sign the reforms into law, calling them an "important step towards strengthening justice". However, former leftist prime minister Robert Fico, whose government had been plagued by accusations of corruption, slammed a provision allowing a non-judge to head the new Supreme Administrative Court. The body will deal with civil, commercial and criminal cases and serve as a disciplinary court for judges and prosecutors. It will have the same status as the Supreme Court and will be established on August 1, 2021. Published in September, the European Commission's rule of law report found that Slovakia's justice system "is characterised by a very low level of perceived judicial independence among both the general public and businesses." In a Eurobarometer survey published in January, only 26 percent of respondents in Slovakia rated the independence of their courts and judges as good. Some 85 percent of Slovaks indicated interference or pressure from government and politicians as a reason for their negative perception of the independence of courts and judges. Transparency International ranks Slovakia 59 on its list of the world's most corrupt countries and high-level corruption has long been a topic of public concern. juh/mas/rl
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