The fact that yesterday’s raid of the premises of our media outlet was, in fact, a political prosecution, following the Kremlin’s recipe, is also evidenced by the name of the judge who signed the police search warrant. Namely, this is the infamous Mojca Kocijančič, about whom we have already written in the past. She is the ex-wife of the left-wing politician and former Minister from the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia party (Liberalna demokracija Slovenije – LDS), Aleš Zalar.
According to the editor of the news programme on Nova24TV, Aleksander Rant, Mojca Kocijančič is “one of the on-call judges for critical elements that get on the nerves of the system or the deep state.”
“She was the judge in the investigation who acquitted Hilda Tovšak, Košič and Horvat, meaning that she acquitted people who profited and laundered money in the scandals of the construction of our motorways, etc. This same judge was in four cases (out of seven) in the proceedings against Zoran Janković, and in all the proceedings that she conducted, she acquitted Zoran Janković. Mojca Kocijančič is also mentioned in the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) affair. At the time when the servers of the largest opposition party were confiscated,” Rant noted.
One of the judges who acquits Janković
Four of the six proceedings against Zoran Janković were or are being conducted by the same judge – Mojca Kocjančič. As a district court judge in Ljubljana, she, together with six co-defendants, acquitted him of all charges in the Stožice car park case, in which the prosecution presented some quite convincing evidence.
Kocjančič is also well known to the public for the pharmacist affair, as she ordered that the wiretaps, which were heavily incriminating for Janković, be eliminated from the proceedings and destroyed. This decision was in serious conflict with the legal practice at the time – so controversial was her decision that even some left-leaning legal experts spoke out and rebuked her.
What’s more, the Constitutional Court eventually suspended the enforcement of the Criminal Procedure Act’s “pharmaceutical” provisions, at the request of Supreme State Prosecutor Drago Šketa, which had saved Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković from problems with the judiciary over his arrangement of the job for a so-called “pharmacist” in Ljubljana’s pharmacies. As a result of a ruling by constitutional judges, it is now temporarily no longer the case that secret wiretap recordings or similar evidence obtained by “special means” must be destroyed if the prosecutor has not initiated criminal proceedings within two years.
The Supreme State Prosecutor initiated the proceedings before the Constitutional Court, arguing that this deadline, which was not respected by the judiciary with regard to Janković, was unreasonable: it hindered the prosecution of the criminals and made it impossible to protect the rights of the aggrieved party.
So Mojca Kocjančič, with her incredible defensive manoeuvres to protect the Mayor of Ljubljana, even triggered the intervention of the Supreme State Prosecutor and the Constitutional Court!
It is, therefore, not surprising that she subsequently acquitted Janković in all the court proceedings she conducted.
She had already signed controversial orders in the past
Let us also remind you of the dramatic footage from 2020 that was recorded in Olimje and Ljubljana, when investigators of the National Bureau of Investigation (NPU) started house searches at the homes of the then-Minister Zdravko Počivalšek and at the Ministry of Economy. The affair of trying to bring down the then-government fell flat on its face on the very day of the investigations, as there were no dramatic revelations – despite the fact that even Minister Počivalšek’s jacket was searched. At the time, the National Bureau of Investigation was investigating absurd claims of corruption in the supply of medical equipment during the pandemic – and, of course, nothing has come of that case to date.
The search warrant was also ordered at the time by the investigating judge Mojca Kocjančič on the basis of made-up claims presented by the prosecution. A decision on deprivation of liberty was also signed. Počivalšek was deprived of his liberty on the grounds of detention under Article 157(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, on the grounds of conditions for detention being met under the second paragraph of Article 157 of the Criminal Procedure Code, i.e. circumstances indicating a risk of his absconding, and on the grounds of conditions for detention being met under Article 201 of the Criminal Procedure Code, on the grounds of a concrete and real risk of his repeating the same offences while at liberty, which is absolutely ridiculous. The Minister of the Economy was considered, according to the National Bureau of Investigation’s assessment, a flight risk! Mojca Kocjančič found the suspicion of risk of flight quite credible and calmly signed the decision.
It also turned out that Kocjančič is a criminal judge and is not even assigned to the Investigation Department as an investigating judge. One of the users of the Twitter account at the time revealed that Marjan Pogačnik, a former criminal investigator and then President of the Ljubljana District Court, “has exceptionally assigned himself and Kocjančič to the investigation, even though neither of them is in the Investigation Department.”
It really looks as if Kocjančič is an investigating judge “for special needs”.
What role did the police play in all of this?
This raises the question of what role the police, or rather its Director-General, Senad Jušić, played in the raids. The fact is that it has never before happened that on the basis of an interim report of a commission, the police have already carried out investigations, especially in such cases where the commission of inquiry headed by Mojca Pašek Šetinc presented completely trivial accusations without any evidence of criminal offences, and what is more, even the former chairwoman of the same commission herself has admitted that the said commission of the National Assembly was used (or abused) for political purposes in order to settle scores with the largest opposition party – the SDS party.
Perhaps it is now easier to understand why Prime Minister Robert Golob has been so diligent in “purging the Janšaists” from the police force and creating a body loyal to himself that will act according to his instructions. By getting rid of the former Acting Director-General of the Police, Boštjan Lindav, and former Minister of the Interior Tatjana Bobnar, did he really get loyal soldiers who are apparently ready (in conjunction with the judiciary) to do anything on command, as in Russia at the behest of Vladimir Putin? Lindav and Bobnar were certainly not “right-wing”, at most, they were considered by insiders to be part of the milieus of left-wing influential circles, but that was not enough for Golob. In the end, he appointed Senad Jušić to the position of Director-General – a man, who is completely unknown to the public, but who came to the post loaded with the weight of an internal security procedure.
Namely, in 2014, police officers in the Primorska region seized 175 kilograms of cocaine at the Povir rest stop. Now, almost ten years later, an internal investigation case has been initiated against the police officers who participated in the said seizure in one way or another. According to unofficial information, the role of Senad Jušić in the seizure of the cocaine is also being investigated. Jušić’s role was reportedly investigated by the police before Interior Minister Poklukar appointed him to the very top of the police.
Of course, it is no surprise that during his time as head of the police, the police got nowhere in investigating Prime Minister Golob and his allegedly questionable dealings. While the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK) wiped its hands clean of these investigations, saying that the matter was being investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation, it looks as if all cases related to the Prime Minister are actually safely tucked away in a drawer. Meanwhile, the police are dealing with more important matters – like the raid of our media outlet.
The breakdown of the rule of law?
In legal proceedings where the state attacks private legal entities (which are, by definition, weaker than the state), not only objective but also subjective impartiality is important – that is, any proceedings must not only be impartial, but must not even cast doubt in regards to their own potential bias.
In this case, however, we are talking about a court decision on a police raid of one of the last independent media outlets in the country (which has been publicly attacked and threatened many times by the ruling politicians), signed by a judge who is famous for her incredible legal manoeuvres which she is willing to execute in order to save a major player from the left-wing deep state, and on the other hand for signing off on warrants for investigations into politicians who have participated in right-wing governments. Does such a process inspire a sense of impartiality?
Apparently, the people in power do not even care anymore. They know that they have a one-term limit and have decided to use (or abuse) all the levers of state coercion to their advantage for as long as they still can.
I. K.
