Much ado about nothing, there is a drama from Shakespeare, this is how Minister of Justice Bojan Maricic in a guest appearance in Utrinski Briefing commented yesterday’s rumour that former EU Commissioner and former Special Envoy for Religious Freedom Jan Figel made in front of the Shutka prison where he insisted on entering and visiting detainee Orce Kamchev.
-I think that whole story is over-exaggerated in the public probably with some kind of purpose. The meeting of Figel with Orce Kamchev is at the request of Kamchev’s lawyer. It was requested two days ago from the court, and then he appeared in front of the prison and asked to see Orce Kamchev. I was notified, we requested information from the European Commission and the Embassy of Slovakia, all of his terms have already ended. It is a matter of a private initiative and the court had a dilemma whether he currently holds any function. It has been checked and found that he has no function. There was no approval from the court for a certain time, then it was allowed. “Neither I nor EU Commissioner Varheji have urged anyone to make the visit happen or not, these are speculations,” explained Minister of Justice Bojan Maricic.
The Minister pointed out that all detainees and prisoners have regular visits from lawyers and close family members.
-Orce Kamchev had a request for visitation a few months ago also from the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and it was approved. Nothing is forbidden to anyone. I have to note that it is out of all procedures to appear in front of the prison and request to see a prisoner or detainee, it is the job of the court to approve the visit of persons in the prison, said Maricic.
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
