Months ago, we heard an unusual story about a fire at the Faculty of Law in Bosnia and Herzegovina – and allegedly, the diploma of Judge Branko Masleša was also burnt there, but now, the fire has apparently also spread to the archives of the Ministry of Justice. So far, the ministry in question has neither confirmed nor denied this, but two different sources have stated that the ministry was unsuccessful in searching for Masleša’s state legal exam there. We also heard that at the same time, certain documents were being sought in Montenegro, but in this case, the search is not related to Masleša, but instead to the former judge Zvjezdan Radonjić. It is not clear what they were looking for and why, as Radonjić received his education here, in Slovenia. However, if we add one plus one, it is quite obvious that the Supreme Court judge’s camp is quite eager to divert attention from Masleša and any debates about the validity of his state legal exam.
While we are eagerly awaiting Thursday’s 11th session of the Judicial Council, at which the members are expected to discuss the validity of the Supreme Court judge’s diploma and state legal exam, there is supposedly much more going on in the background. According to our information, the camp of Supreme Court judge Branko Masleša is trying its best to divert the attention. Namely, two different sources confirmed for us that Masleša supposedly sent a fellow lawyer to the Ministry of Justice in Sarajevo, but the search for Masleša’s state legal exam has not been successful so far. As a possible excuse, the story of the archives burning down during the war has been popping up in several places. And if months ago, we were hearing lots about the story of the fire at the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo, the fire has now apparently also spread to the archives of the Ministry of Justice – which is something that the ministry has not yet been able to confirm or deny.
It is interesting, however, that the story of the search for the bar exam also came from Sarajevo and not only from Slovenian sources. In addition, some interesting information has also come our way from Montenegro – the structure of our transitional left is also said to have members of its network there who are browsing and searching for certain information about the former judge Zvjezdan Radonjić. However, even Radonjić himself does not know exactly what they are looking for. “I do not know what they are looking for. My diploma and the state legal exam certificate are at the Ministry of Justice,” he told us, letting us know that his data is completely transparent. The former judge was born in Zagreb, to a well-educated family of doctors. However, when he was still a child, he already moved to Slovenia and graduated from university here, and then also passed the state legal exam – so it is not yet clear what they are searching for in Montenegro, but it is clear that ways of diverting attention are being tried and tested.
Radonjić caused quite a stir in our small country on the sunny side of the Alps with his acquittal in the Milko Novič case and his exposure of terrible pressure from the prosecutor’s office and the court. Suddenly, it was not just the SDS politicians and the rare few opposition media who spoke about the functioning of the deep state and its influence on the judiciary, but also a prominent judge who tried many high-profile cases in the last 15 years. Among them is the case of priest Franci Frantar, who was accused and consequently convicted due to sexually abusing a 10-year-old, and also the case of Janez Janša and Franc Matoz for the false accusation of former prosecutor Barbara Zobec Hrastar, and the case of the robbers who shot the owner of a jewellery store in Šiška. He sentenced smugglers who smuggled 300 kilograms of heroin to Slovenia from Kosovo to 101 years in prison. However, he was never pressured until the Novič case, and after that, everything changed. The whole thing went so far that the prosecutor’s office appealed, the ethics commission described the judge’s conduct as unethical, and the President of the court, Marjan Pogačnik, proposed disciplinary proceedings against Radonjić for several violations. As a result, the Supreme Court imposed a temporary suspension on the basis of disciplinary proceedings, and as an epilogue to the whole story, Radonjić received an assessment from the Personnel Council last June that he does not meet the criteria of required personality traits. The assessment of the judicial service was that Radonjić is not fit for the judicial service. In the 23 years of his tenure – during which time he was the judge in over 3,000 criminal cases – no one ever questioned his personality traits, and his trial in the Novič case was more than obviously what disturbed certain political forces. Radonjić is therefore a clear example of what can happen to a judge who openly points out irregularities and who puts professionalism first, meaning, even before belonging to a certain regime or structure. It is well known that in “his” court, Pogačnik believes that belonging to the right circles is much more important than professionalism.
“Ten years ago, I was receiving top marks, I was a top and excellent judge, and now I am suddenly among the worst. At that time, I also pointed out certain things in the courtroom and came into conflict with certain persons who are highly ranked due to the kinship situation in the prosecution and the judiciary. This was the last straw, and then my path went downhill. I ran for a position in the High Court twice, and even though I had the best conditions, I was not picked. My assessments got lower and lower, all of which had consequences for my health,” Radonjić told the journalist Dr Jože Možina in an interview in 2019, talking about how in our country, a judge can be promoted – or not be promoted.
Although the issue of the validity of the state legal exam in Masleša’s case is perhaps the most problematic, he is by far not the only judge in the country with this problem. In the 1990s, Masleša brought judge Jaša Jasminka Trklja to Slovenia from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who passed the state legal exam in 1987 in Sarajevo. According to the judgment of the Slovenian Supreme Court from 2020, only the state legal exam passed in accordance with the regulation that was in force in the Republic of Slovenia, and not in accordance with the regulation of another republic of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, is equated with the state legal exam. The Judicial Council has not yet decided on the validity of Trklja’s state legal exam. Can we expect it to decide on this issue on Thursday, or will the story of the burned archive of the Ministry of Justice also be used at the session of the Judicial Council? Let’s wait and see.
Sara Kovač
