“The judiciary is being run by the deep state. According to my information, two regional lobbies are running the country. And not just the judiciary, but also politics and practically everything else. They delegate supreme judges, presidents of supreme courts. The morally and politically profiled staff also come to the lower levels,” said former judge Zvjezdan Radonjić on the show Odkroto (Honestly) on RTV Slovenia.
TV show host Igor Pirkovič had the former Judge Zvjezdan Radnojić and former mayor of Maribor Franc Kangler on the show Odkrtio (Honestly) on RTV Slovenia. “Today, I am hosting two people on my show, who have experienced the hand of the judiciary affecting their life – one way or the other,” Pirkovič said in the introduction. First, he turned to judge Radonjić: “I have the assessment for the judicial service before me. At the suggestion of senior judge Marjan Pogačnik, it was assessed that Zvjezdan Radonjić is no longer fit for the position of a judge.” Radonjić responded to this, saying: “I certainly do not fit the kind of judicial service they have in mind, and I never have, in fact, I am surprised that the whole thing even lasted for 23 years in the first place.” Pirkovič reminded the viewers that this was an assessment of Radonjić’s work in recent years.
As the journalist pointed out, this was actually a rather bizarre decision, and part of it was also related to Radonjić’s guest appearance on the Planet TV channel. “How do you personally understand this disciplining?” Radonjić: “Just like everyone else does. The Zobec couple experienced something similar when they went to lecture at the Republican University in the USA, which later meant they had to write a report for the president of the court as if the Republican party had been declared a terrorist organisation. In short: all of the judicial nomenclature in Slovenia is a state within a state. They are its own society and have the full coverage of all possible backgrounds, both that of the deep state, as well as, unfortunately, the official state.” They are aware of the fact that they are untouchable and can afford such decisions. Radonjić knew that his ruling in the case of Milko Novič would immediately be followed by the disciplinary proceedings, suspensions, criminal charges, reprimands from the Judges’ Association, various findings at various commissions of the Judicial Council, and so on, and so forth.
And what happened last is just the latest option: “It is a good thing that Goli Otok has already been abolished; otherwise, I would have probably already ended up there.” Pirkovič then also turned to Kangler and mentioned that the proceedings against him lasted for years, but finally, he emerged victorious. In total, Kangler won as many as 24 cases. Kangler: “Because I was fair in my work, because I worked for what was in the best interest of the municipality and the state, and because I was willing to die for this country in 1991, I expected to see the truth and justice finally win one day. The wounds have healed; however, they were really deep, and the scars still remain today.” And these scars do not bother anyone in Slovenian society. Just as they attacked Radonjić, the elite also attacked Kangler simply because they could not have come to terms with certain projects and programmes and the results from the period of his mayoralty. He mentioned the gondola, Ljudski vrt, the Puppet Theatre. These were projects that drew huge amounts of money from the EU funds.
Novič was not acquitted by Radonjić, but by a fair trial that allowed the use of evidence
Kangler has not yet received an apology from the journalists who slandered his name and reputation, despite the fact that there were as many as 2,200 negative articles written about a single case and a total of more than 10,000 over the last ten years. And if someone is a mayor of the second-largest city in the country, has been elected to the National Assembly twice and to the National Council three times, it is all the more painful for him to see his reputation being ruined. Pirkovič reminded the viewers that Radonjić had acquitted Novič based on the law and that this was not a political process. At the same time, Pirković also wondered why Radonjić was allegedly not supposed to acquit him at the time. “It is a misinterpretation of the trial – namely, certain people believe that I acquitted him, but in truth, I only allowed a fair trial. I did not acquit him; the evidence did. My “mistake” was that I allowed for his evidence to be presented. He would have had to be imprisoned for the rest of his life in order for certain activates that were happening at the National Institute of Chemistry to be covered up.”
Pirkovič then wanted to know who was supposedly trying to settle the score with Radonjić in the background. He asked the former judge if he had any “opponents” from the judiciary in recent years. “The judiciary is run by the deep state. According to my information, there are two regional lobbies running the country. Not just the judiciary, but also politics and practically everything else. They delegate supreme judges, the presidents of supreme courts. The morally and politically profiled cadres even come to the lower levels of the judiciary.” If a problem occurs in the first instance court, when some judges do not want to act in accordance with the deep state’s demands, the whole system intervenes: the Judicial Council and their bodies, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the leadership of the judiciary, the Judicial Association, the judges who sign various petitions. Judges of the “Marjan Pogačnik type” are installed in all of these key positions, as they have previously been checked in all of the “deep-state” bodies and have been highly ranked by certain ministers.
“The judiciary is a state within a state, and it is so heavily protected that it can do practically whatever it wants.”
“This is an entire system, a state within a state, which is so heavily protected that it can do practically whatever it wants. Even things that the judges from certain authoritarian countries would not dare to do. The normative protection of these people also goes beyond severe authoritarian regimes.” With this, Kangler also cited one of his own examples of a conviction in one of the cases, the reason for it being the danger of “him returning to politics.” So, the judge decided to send him to prison. Pirkovič then wanted to know why there were no parliamentary sessions related to this, no television shows, and so on. “Have I ever been invited to the show Tarča (Target) with all of the evidence? No, because I am too dangerous, and I would have revealed the truth. Are we ever allowed to tell the truth in this media house, except for today, here, with you? These words were also written in the newspapers Dnevnik and Večer. And then the two judges who ordered my house to be searched are photographed on a picnic with Tanja Fajon.”
“This was the head of the investigative judges in Maribor. Apart from the fact that the Judicial Council found them guilty and found a violation, nothing happened.” Pirkovič then reminded the viewers of the recent protest in front of the European Institutions in Brussels, where the protesters carried banners, calling for the protection of the rule of law in Slovenia. Pirkobvič also added that the protesters were not referring to cases such as Kangler’s or Radonjić’s and asked why we are not talking about the actual problematic cases when it comes to the pressures in the Slovenian judiciary. Radonjić pointed out the political blockades during the mandates of the previous left-wing governments and the demands that the situation in the judiciary should not change. And the European Court of Human Rights has been occupied by forces that are ideologically close to George Soros and his agenda. “All the moves of the current government and the Prime Minister are characterised as authoritarianism, non-freedom, fascism, and in this, the opponents are supported by the key media, such as Deutsche Welle, Die Presse, and so on. The deep state, as the dominant one, has also infiltrated the European institutions.”
Odbor 2014 (the Committee 2014) regularly informed Amnesty International of the problems it was facing, but they never responded
“The situation is not expected to change, given the Polish example. The Poles have been trying to get certain chief justices to retire for some time now, but the European Court of Human Rights has strongly fought against this.” In all of the authorities’ attempts to change the judicial policy, encroachment on personal rights always supposedly happens, which Europe condemns, and that brings things back to square one. Kangler pointed out that the Committee 2014 regularly informed Amnesty International of the problems it was facing, but not once did any of the presidents and judges react, let alone write to the Committee 2014. And when dolls depicting Kangler were being hung around Maribor, no one batted an eye. “Did you see any journalists being critical of those dolls?” Kangler also cited an example from 2012, when he was elected State Councilor, but his mandate was not confirmed, even though he was elected legitimately because there was a danger of him supporting Alojs Kovšca for the position of president.
And after he finally got the term, he was sentenced to seven months in prison, so then he lost the term after all. “The tendencies of the deep state are so strong that if they decide they will get rid of you, they also do it, and no one is held responsible for it. Who was rewarded for their actions in my case? Fank Marjan was made the director of the police. Who was rewarded by the prosecutors? Mister Drago Šketa was made the General State Prosecutor. Who appointed Šketa as the leader in Maribor? Aleš Zalar, the former Minister of Justice. And this chain is so intertwined that they do not even have to tell each other what needs to be done, as everyone already knows it. And that is the problem – nobody is held responsible for the injustices that are caused intentionally.” Radonjič then also shared what happened to the people who brought him down. “Andreja Sedej Grčar became a senior judge, Deja Kozjek became a senior judge, Marjan Pogačnik became a senior judge, Hari Furlan became the supreme state prosecutor, and Miha Kunič became even richer than he was before. It is only Blanka Žgajnar that has not made any formal and legal process, which is very surprising to me.” He also said that he was used to set an “example” for all of the other judges, so they would know to keep their mouths shut.
“Take a look at who is Klakočar Zupančič’s uncle, and it will soon be clear to you why nothing can ever happen to her.”
According to Ragonjić, most of the judges are tired of the constant pressures, manipulations, blackmail, and that there is a real possibility of something similar breaking out soon, some kind of a rebellion. By punishing Radonjić and rewarding his “executioners,” they made it clear to each and every judge that any rebellion would be sanctioned without mercy. Pirkovič then mentioned all of the accusations against Radonjić that came from the ranks of the judiciary – how he supposedly abused his position and how he expressed himself inappropriately in his public statements. He also pointed out the case of Urška Klakočar Zupančič, who described the Prime Minister Janez Janša as “the great dictator.” The assessment was that her statement was not appropriate. Radonjić: “I have stopped reading these assessments of theirs quite a while ago, as it is all just a waste of time and them faking ignorance. Take a look at who is Klakočar Zupančič’s uncle, and it will soon be clear to you why nothing can ever happen to her. She did not only call Janša the “great dictator,” she straight out described him as Adolf Hitler and even made her post “public” on Facebook. Nevertheless, I am sure that she will soon make progress and become a senior judge.”
Pirkovič also touched on the protesters who are hysterically trying to convince everyone that human rights in Slovenia are being trampled while also informing the rest of the world about the government of terror we supposedly have in Slovenia. “What is that all about?” Radonjić said that this is a kind of political manipulation, which also includes international factors in the EU, as well as a number of enthusiasts who are sincere believers in the ideology, although it has already been proven that it is an ideology that cannot possibly exist in reality. This is a conglomeration of deceived, manipulative and manipulated people, but in total, it is about 20 thousand people, who do not represent a critical mass that could strengthen the left-wing pole to an extent where it would be able to overthrow the government, which is also internally incoherent to the point where it is incapable of carrying out any change, even where it is absolutely necessary. Kangler: “None of these protesters has the guts to say, ‘I am the organiser,’ as this would mean they would actually have to take responsibility. The Committee 2014 had an organiser and also registered its gatherings. But these are the leftists for you. They have always been hiding behind someone else. Let me also point out that the media outlets did not report on the Committee 2014’s gatherings unless there was any kind of conflict.”
Domen Mezeg
