According to MEP Romana Tomc, the CONT and LIBE committees have recently exchanged views with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office because MEPs were interested in the opinion of the European Public Prosecutor on the solo action of Slovenia’s Prosecutor-General, Drago Šketa, in Moscow, where he signed a cooperation programme with the head of Russian State Prosecutors, Igor Krasnov. In the discussion with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Tomc also pointed out the suspicion of misuse of European funds in the case of the former Director of the National Bureau of Investigation, Darko Muženič. “The case will be brought byefore the European Public Prosecutor’s Office,” explained MEP Romana Tomc.
MEP Romana Tomc attended a discussion of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on Slovenia, where the exchange of views with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office also took place. “MEPs are also interested in how the European Public Prosecutor comments on the scandalous visit of the State Prosecutor-General Šketa to Moscow,” Tomc explained.
Namely, the Prosecutor-General of the Republic of Slovenia, Drago Šketa, travelled to Moscow to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Russian prosecutor’s office. This was supposedly a “solo action” of his, as it happened while the relations between the East and the West were already strained before the war in Ukraine started. The Russian prosecutor’s office is an extension of the Russian authorities, which is actively persecuting dissidents and critics of the government – which is why any democratic prosecutor’s office should boycott such invitations to celebrations.
On the 13th of January of this year, so just over a month before the start of Russian aggression on Ukraine, Šketa signed a programme of cooperation with the head of the Russian state prosecutors, Igor Krasnov, during his visit to Moscow. The agreement has caused quite a stir in public, as Krasnov is a person who has been on the list of people subject to restrictive measures in all countries of the European Union due to serious human rights violations since March last year, the Domovina magazine reported.
Muženič is also under the European Public Prosecutor’s Office’s scrutiny
In the discussion at the exchange of opinions with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Tomc also pointed out the suspicion of misuse of European funds in the case of former Director of the National Bureau of Investigation, Darko Muženič, who was also the Director of the Office for Money Laundering Prevention and an important player in money laundering in the NLB Bank money laundering affair. “The case will be considered by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office,” Tomc explained.
In the past, it was noted that Muženič was the head of the National Bureau of Investigation, under which it was concluded that the prosecution of those involved in the NLB money laundering affair should be abandoned, and he got to the position in question after being the Director of one of the key institutions which should have been investigated by the bureau at the time – the Office for Money Laundering Prevention. Former Director-General of the police, Tatjana Bobnar, said at the time that Muženič was in a completely different position at the time when the money laundering actually happened.
However, it is also known that the criminal investigators at the National Bureau of Investigations who proposed to stop the investigation under Muženič’s leadership, failed to even conduct an informative interview with the Iranian citizen Ira Farrokzadeh, who was involved in the affair, even though it was known when he was in Ljubljana, and even though the economist Rado Pezdir, who was a member of the Commission of Inquiry for investigating the alleged abuse of banks.
Sara Kovač
