“The prosecution proposed it and the court ruled in accordance with it. This information, which came from the top of the judiciary, proved to be accurate,” former judge Zvjezdan Radonjić commented on the verdict, which he says is a result of a deal.
The Trial Chamber of the Celje District Court sentenced the former judge Zvjezdan Radonjić “for defamation and slander” of a Ljubljana judge Andreja Sedej Grčar and Ljubljana prosecutor Blanka Žgajnar to a single fine of nine thousand euros. In doing so, the Chamber followed the opinion of the prosecution. The President of the Chamber, Gordana Malovič, announced that the defendant is obliged to pay the fine within three months after the judgement becomes final. He was also ordered to pay the court costs, the court fee and the costs of the victims Sedej Grčar and Žgajnar. Failure to pay the fine and failure to enforce recovery will be followed by imprisonment, but not exceeding six months.
In her closing speech, prosecutor Renata Inkret insisted that Radonjić had defamed and insulted Sedej Grčar and Žgajnar. Namely, in 2019, the defendant acquitted Milko Novič in the trial for the murder of the Director of the Institute of Chemistry, Janko Jamnik. However, the criminal proceedings were initiated because Radonjić claimed that he had been subjected to pressure in connection with the trial in question. In his report to the President of the Ljubljana District Court, Marjan Pogačnik, the former judge alleged that Sedej Grčar came to him at least five times during the Novič trial.
The prisoner was brought to the courtroom in handcuffs
She was said to visit him in the office in agreement with the prosecutor Žgajnar and the lawyer Miha Kunič. She supposedly suggested to him how to rule on the case – that Novič should not be acquitted of the crime he was accused of. The judge and the prosecutor in question denied these allegations. According to the prosecutor, Radonjić had damaged the honour and good name of the victims. Radonjić has already announced that he would appeal.
Radonjić was forcibly brought to Thursday’s hearing by police officers at the request of the Trial Chamber, which considered that the accused was evading trial. As the prosecutor was reading her closing arguments, the accused left the courtroom voluntarily and, at the request of Judge Malovič, the police officers brought him back to the court and brought him to the trial handcuffed. He did not listen to the verdict, as he left the court during a break after the closing arguments, the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reports. Well, the fact is that Radonjić was forcibly brought in, even though he had a legal reason for his absence, namely that he was on sick leave.
It is also important to note that Radonjić had previously already mentioned both Sedej Grčar and Žgajnar in connection with the deep state, which allegedly rewarded Sedej Grčar by making her a senior judge after she had ruined Radonjić’s job as a judge. We spoke to former judge Radonjić about the case. We wanted to know how he assesses the verdict and what he thinks about the alleged connection of the two officials with the deep state.
Former judge Zvjezdan Radonjić commented on the ruling:
“This is already known (the aforementioned judge and prosecutor’s links to the deep state), there have been numerous interviews about it (most recently for Domovina and Demokracija). We will definitely appeal, that’s clear. I can’t say in advance that this is a case of revenge, but the only thing I know is that the law has been flagrantly broken and I very strongly assume that the judge has been instructed what to do regarding my case. After all, what the public prosecutor proposed and what the judge then said …
I was already interviewed last month by Domovina. In the said interview, I described in detail that I had information that I was going to be fined, and that this fine would be between five and six thousand euros. That is what I said, and that is exactly what happened.
The prosecution proposed it and the court ruled in accordance with it. This information, which came from the top of the judiciary, proved to be accurate. The verdict is a result of this, they knew months ago how things would be decided today. This means that the trial was a game and it was known in advance how it would end after the evidence (of one kind or another) – what the verdict would be. Malovič deliberately followed what Sedej Grčar and Žgajnar claimed.”
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