Smer complains to top court over clauses on forfeiture

A group of opposition MPs, mainly from the former ruling Smer-SD party, has filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court against two clauses of the Penal Code concerning the forfeiture of property in certain cases, claiming that they're at odds with the constitution, the Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights. The group criticises the clauses for "taking away from courts the exclusive power to decide on punishment, replacing it with an obligation to impose the punishment of forfeiture of property without regard to principles of how penalties are handed down". Such a punishment can allegedly inappropriately infringe the right to private property.