Lie about interference with the independence of the judiciary
People associated to contribute to the achievement of an agreed purpose and without the capacity for rights and obligations (Section 829 of the Civil Code), acting under the name “Za otvorenú justíciu - ZOJ“(For Open Justice), issued a press release on July 29, 2025, which several media outlets and news agencies picked up.
ZOJ stated that at the beginning of February 2025, they were suddenly cut off from access to justice.sk email network, which falls under the administration of the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic. They consider this procedure to be "unreasonable, disproportionate and potentially repressive, as it makes normal professional communication of the judicial association impossible". At the same time, ZOJ purposefully and unreasonably linked this situation with the Judicial Council, creating the impression that this is a consequence of criticizing "problematic decisions and procedures" also of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic. Moreover, the Ministry's decision was intended to violate the basic principles of judicial independence and the rule of law.
The President of the Judicial Council, Marcela Kosová, strongly objects to the repeated attacks by the ZOJ on the Judicial Council as a constitutional body of judicial legitimacy, half of whose members are elected by judges.
Based on official information, the ZOJ consists of 31 founders and supporters, while at least 12 are judges, including two ZOJ spokespeople, who have full access to the mass judicial mail of judges throughout Slovakia. No one and nothing could prevent them from addressing all judges at any time with anything to communicate with them, whether professionally or unprofessionally. "Therefore, if the ZOJ states that they were cut off from access to justice.sk email network, they are simply lying," said Kosová.
"The professional organization of judges, the Association of Judges of Slovakia (Združenie sudcov Slovenska - ZSS), with approximately 600 members, transparent financing, statutes, and structures, is established in European and international professional organizations of judges. Nevertheless, the president of this association does not have access to the mass mailing of judges, since as a judge of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic, he does not have a justice.sk email address and no one meaninglessly calls this a violation of the basic principles of the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law", emphasized the President of the Judicial Council.
She also stressed an important fact. Based on her initiative, the contractual supplier for monitoring media outputs, which the Office of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic sends to all judges in Slovakia every working day, has changed beginning December 2024. Thanks to this, unlike in the past, every output that the Judicial Council publishes on its website is part of this monitoring.
Slovak judges and court presidents waited in vain for ZOJ´s response to the current decision of the Administrative Court, which overturned the shameful dismissal of Roman Fitt from the position of the President of the former Bratislava III District Court in June 2022 by the then Minister of Justice Mária Kolíková in connection with the intervention of NAKA in court. This was already criticized at that time, not by Katarína Javorčíková, but by the members of the Judicial Council elected by the judges, including Marcela Kosová. Now, after three years, the Administrative Court found them right in all arguments.
The ZOJ covers up this unprecedented interference in the independence of the judiciary by Mária Kolíková by issuing a misleading press release that goes back to February 2025. In this regard, the public should not forget that the former judge and leading representative of the ZOJ, Katarína Javorčíková, never represented judges while being a member of the Judicial Council, but rather she represented Mária Kolíková, a member of the then government. In May 2022, at a meeting of the Judicial Council, Javorčíková stated that if Roman Fitt had "admitted" that he was the president of this court when NAKA first arrived, what happened that evening would have been avoided, and at the same time she asked why he "concealed his identity and did not react as a statutory representative of the court."
It is no coincidence that Mária Kolíková also stated this subsequently when he was dismissed in June 2022. It is no coincidence that at the meeting of the Judicial Council in February 2023, Katarína Javorčíková voted against the resolution by which the Judicial Council wanted to express concern about the actions of the former Minister of Justice Mária Kolíková in dismissing Roman Fitt from the post of the president of the court.
“A very unsuccessful attempt to cover up the failure of Mária Kolíková and Katarína Javorčíková, which unfortunately no longer surprises the judges,” concluded Marcela Kosová.
ZOJ stated that at the beginning of February 2025, they were suddenly cut off from access to justice.sk email network, which falls under the administration of the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic. They consider this procedure to be "unreasonable, disproportionate and potentially repressive, as it makes normal professional communication of the judicial association impossible". At the same time, ZOJ purposefully and unreasonably linked this situation with the Judicial Council, creating the impression that this is a consequence of criticizing "problematic decisions and procedures" also of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic. Moreover, the Ministry's decision was intended to violate the basic principles of judicial independence and the rule of law.
The President of the Judicial Council, Marcela Kosová, strongly objects to the repeated attacks by the ZOJ on the Judicial Council as a constitutional body of judicial legitimacy, half of whose members are elected by judges.
Based on official information, the ZOJ consists of 31 founders and supporters, while at least 12 are judges, including two ZOJ spokespeople, who have full access to the mass judicial mail of judges throughout Slovakia. No one and nothing could prevent them from addressing all judges at any time with anything to communicate with them, whether professionally or unprofessionally. "Therefore, if the ZOJ states that they were cut off from access to justice.sk email network, they are simply lying," said Kosová.
"The professional organization of judges, the Association of Judges of Slovakia (Združenie sudcov Slovenska - ZSS), with approximately 600 members, transparent financing, statutes, and structures, is established in European and international professional organizations of judges. Nevertheless, the president of this association does not have access to the mass mailing of judges, since as a judge of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic, he does not have a justice.sk email address and no one meaninglessly calls this a violation of the basic principles of the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law", emphasized the President of the Judicial Council.
She also stressed an important fact. Based on her initiative, the contractual supplier for monitoring media outputs, which the Office of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic sends to all judges in Slovakia every working day, has changed beginning December 2024. Thanks to this, unlike in the past, every output that the Judicial Council publishes on its website is part of this monitoring.
Slovak judges and court presidents waited in vain for ZOJ´s response to the current decision of the Administrative Court, which overturned the shameful dismissal of Roman Fitt from the position of the President of the former Bratislava III District Court in June 2022 by the then Minister of Justice Mária Kolíková in connection with the intervention of NAKA in court. This was already criticized at that time, not by Katarína Javorčíková, but by the members of the Judicial Council elected by the judges, including Marcela Kosová. Now, after three years, the Administrative Court found them right in all arguments.
The ZOJ covers up this unprecedented interference in the independence of the judiciary by Mária Kolíková by issuing a misleading press release that goes back to February 2025. In this regard, the public should not forget that the former judge and leading representative of the ZOJ, Katarína Javorčíková, never represented judges while being a member of the Judicial Council, but rather she represented Mária Kolíková, a member of the then government. In May 2022, at a meeting of the Judicial Council, Javorčíková stated that if Roman Fitt had "admitted" that he was the president of this court when NAKA first arrived, what happened that evening would have been avoided, and at the same time she asked why he "concealed his identity and did not react as a statutory representative of the court."
It is no coincidence that Mária Kolíková also stated this subsequently when he was dismissed in June 2022. It is no coincidence that at the meeting of the Judicial Council in February 2023, Katarína Javorčíková voted against the resolution by which the Judicial Council wanted to express concern about the actions of the former Minister of Justice Mária Kolíková in dismissing Roman Fitt from the post of the president of the court.
“A very unsuccessful attempt to cover up the failure of Mária Kolíková and Katarína Javorčíková, which unfortunately no longer surprises the judges,” concluded Marcela Kosová.
