Text file: 5178.txt
author: Mickena
downvotes: 2
end consideration date: 2013-11-21
id: '5178'
number comments: 4
number views: 2486
proposal type: Competent authority response
response: "Response from the Ministry of Justice\nWe would like to begin by clarifying\
  \ that the Special Section for the Investigation and Prosecution of Officials with\
  \ Special Powers (hereinafter referred to as the \"Special Section\") operates within\
  \ the Specialised Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Slovenia as an independent\
  \ internal organisational unit with a special status, according to the principle\
  \ of professional and operational autonomy in accordance with the provisions of\
  \ the Law on the Public Prosecutor's Office (Article 199(1) of the Law on the Public\
  \ Prosecutor's Office). The Special Section is exclusively responsible for dealing\
  \ with criminal offences committed by officials, both in terms of place and subject\
  \ matter:\n Police; Internal Affairs, who have police powers in the context of exercising\
  \ control under the Law regulating the Police; Military Police, who have police\
  \ powers in pre-trial proceedings; with police powers in pre-trial proceedings,\
  \ who are deployed on a mission abroad; Intelligence and Security Service of the\
  \ Ministry responsible for Defence; Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency (Article\
  \ 199(2) ZDT-1).\nConsequently, the Special Branch has \"police powers in pre-trial\
  \ proceedings\" when acting within the scope of its exclusive statutory competence\
  \ (Article 158a(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act).\nThe Specialised Public Prosecutor's\
  \ Office is responsible for prosecuting the perpetrators of the most complex offences,\
  \ the prosecution of which requires special organisation and competence of public\
  \ prosecutors and the highest level of efficiency and competence, as well as prosecutorial\
  \ activity throughout the country (Article 192(1) ZDT-1), i.e. in particular offences\
  \ in the field of organised classical and economic crime, terrorism and corruption\
  \ offences (Article 192(2) ZDT-1).\nWe would further like to highlight the reasons\
  \ which led to the establishment of the Special Section. These are both formal and\
  \ substantive in nature.\nThe Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia and\
  \ the European Court of Human Rights have found that the previously applicable regulation\
  \ does not protect citizens and other persons in the Republic of Slovenia in the\
  \ case of crimes committed by the police in the exercise of their powers in pre-trial\
  \ proceedings (i.e. in the performance of their duties), did not guarantee an adequate\
  \ independent criminal investigation of allegations against the conduct of the police\
  \ and, consequently, the right to effective judicial protection, since the suspects\
  \ of such offences are police officers and, in accordance with the provisions of\
  \ the Criminal Procedure Act, the police are responsible for detecting the perpetrators\
  \ of offences.\nThe obligation of the State to protect the individual in an effective\
  \ manner against the most serious interference with his or her life, integrity and\
  \ dignity and to guarantee the right to an effective remedy in the event of such\
  \ interference is therefore based on the European Convention on Human Rights and\
  \ the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as on the Constitution\
  \ of the Republic of Slovenia and the case-law of the Constitutional Court of the\
  \ Republic of Slovenia. However, as already mentioned, the above cannot be guaranteed\
  \ if the police officers, to whom the suspects belong, are responsible for the detection\
  \ of suspected offences committed in the exercise of their powers in pre-trial proceedings.\n\
  It is therefore a familiar question of who controls the supervisors (\"Quis custodiet\
  \ ipsos custodes?\", Juvenal, Satire VI), which is linked to potential conflicts\
  \ of interest, independence and, consequently, a clearly demarcated systemic organisation\
  \ of work. Since police officers investigating possible criminal offences committed\
  \ by doctors do not have such a conflict (as this is a completely different field\
  \ and way of working), there is no reason to doubt the effectiveness or impartiality\
  \ of the investigation in such cases.\nThe question of the \"weight of responsibility\"\
  \ did not therefore have a significant impact on the establishment of the Special\
  \ Branch. It is also difficult to make a general assessment that, for example, doctors\
  \ have a greater responsibility than police officers, as this also depends on the\
  \ specific circumstances of individual cases (e.g. the police can protect the life\
  \ and health of a large number of people by their actions in so far as they deter\
  \ a serious danger to the crowd).\nWe further note that the establishment of the\
  \ Specialised Public Prosecutor's Office should also be seen in the broader context\
  \ of the creation of the institutional framework needed to fight organised and white-collar\
  \ crime. Specialised units have been created at the level of the police (the National\
  \ Bureau of Investigation), the public prosecutor's office (the Specialised Public\
  \ Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Slovenia) and the courts (specialised units\
  \ of district courts for the trial of more complex cases of organised and economic\
  \ crime, terrorism, corruption and other similar offences). The key criterion for\
  \ the substantive competence of the individual links in the \"chain of justice\"\
  \ is the gravity of the offence or the importance of the criminal law good protected\
  \ by the criminalisation of the offence, as can be seen from the above. The latter,\
  \ in turn, indirectly implies the potential harmful consequences of the commission\
  \ of such a crime (also for society at large). It is therefore evident that, for\
  \ example, professional errors by doctors, which constitute the crime of negligent\
  \ treatment (Article 179 of the Criminal Code) and whose criminalisation protects\
  \ the criminal-law value of human health, do not as a rule fall into this category.\n\
  In the light of the above, we consider that the current regulation of the competence\
  \ to detect, investigate and prosecute offences committed by doctors in the course\
  \ of their duties is appropriate and adequate."
response date: 2013-12-10
response due date: null
sent date: 2013-10-23
title: Doctors' responsibilities
upvotes: 11
url: https://predlagam.vladi.si/predlog/5178
