Matovic: President's Priority Should Be Fair Justice, Not Amnesties

Bratislava, March 18 (TASR) - The president should do everything he or she can to make justice work in the state, and not subsequently correct the mistakes of justice by handing out amnesties, presidential candidate Igor Matovic said in a presidential election debate on television channel Markiza on Monday. Another candidate for the head of state, Stefan Harabin, was supposed to discuss with Matovic, but he didn't attend the debate. "If everything worked normally, including the first-instance court, the appeals court and we have a fair justice system, nobody needs to grant pardons. And this should be the president's priority, not to individually flatter or reward," added Matovic. He doesn't think that if he proposed scrapping the granting of amnesties by the head of state, he would find support from the constitutional majority in parliament. Matovic fears that sending troops from European countries to Ukraine would be an escalation of the conflict. As president, he would criticise such a decision by another state. On the other hand, he pointed out that if a country decided to do so, it would be its decision, which he could only comment on, but wouldn't change it. He also doesn't think that Slovaks should fight in Ukraine. "Slovaks have nothing to do in Ukraine, we should help them as much as possible," he said, adding that with enough help from the European Union, Ukraine can defend itself. am/mcs