Lawyer's murder cuts Slovakia to the quick

Ernest Valko, Slovakia's best-known lawyer and former head of the Czechoslovak Constitutional Court, has been found murdered in his house not far from Bratislava, leaving Slovakia in a state of shock. The liberal daily Sme is stunned: "There's a little too much shooting going on in Slovakia. Ernest Valko's murder brings us nearer to the Balkans or Russia, where problems are solved in this way. It's still unclear how things could come to this. But what is clear is that Valko was an important personality in this country. A man who lived for the law and one of the few to express his views openly. ... This is not a business-related mafia killing or the elimination of an uncomfortable witness. Valko was a lawyer who stood head and shoulders above the common run of attorneys. He belonged to the small group of people who gave form to our constitution and our laws. For that reason the bullet in his heart cuts our country to the quick."

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