Slovak lawmakers annual pardons in political kidnapping

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – Lawmakers in Slovakia have annulled criminal pardons granted by former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar that barred an investigation into the kidnapping of the son of late President Michal Kovac.

The authoritarian Meciar led Slovakia into international isolation during the 1990s and is alleged to have been behind Michal Kovac Jr.’s abduction to Austria in 1995.

Meciar’s government acquired some presidential powers temporarily in 1998 when lawmakers failed to elect a new president. He granted pardons that made it impossible to investigate the kidnapping.

Wednesday’s vote is an attempt to address old grudges over the abduction.

Lawmakers voted 129-1 to rescind the pardons after they amended the constitution last week to make such a vote possible.

The country’s constitutional Court will have final say on the legality of the moves.