A video of a group of civilians, one of them with a gun on his belt, grabbing a protester, has been published online. It is possible that they were plain-clothes police officers, but it is unusual for them to display weapons in public in such a way. However, we can only assume that they must be police officers because the police did not take any action against them when they passed by later. The police have explained that during the protests, the protesters in question allegedly attacked a media vehicle. But it is not clear whether the action of a man wearing plain clothes and carrying a gun is related to this.
The gathering of protesters in Celje in support of Janez Janša was the result of a series of orchestrated political trials against him as the President of the largest opposition party, the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS). In the run-up to the elections, show trials are often used by judges to try to influence who will govern the country, as the overturned Patria verdicts (and earlier the JBTZ verdicts) have shown.
A similar process is currently underway in the Trenta case. Apparently, it will be quite difficult from now on to know who the members of the forbidden local organisations are, and who the police officers are. The use of armed security guards in crowds is more common in countries with a high risk of violence. Israel or Arab countries, for example.
The police said the following regarding the protests in Celje: “Today in Celje, Celje police officers were protecting an unannounced public gathering where a large number of people had gathered. We dealt with a violation of public order at the rally. The violation occurred when a vehicle belonging to one of the media houses drove onto the scene, and a group of people started spitting at and hitting the vehicle. One of the attendees kicked the vehicle hard. When we were about to escort him to the intervention vehicle to carry out the procedure, he resisted, and we used our powers. We issued a penalty charge order to the person.”
It should be noted that journalists have already been victims of protests in Ljubljana against the previous government led by Janša: the state-funded singer Zlatan Čordić, who had previously campaigned for the party of former Prime Minister Marjan Šarec with a video, violently tried to prevent a cameraman of our media outlet, Nova24TV, from recording the protests, explaining that this television station was not in favour of the protesters, and snatched the camera from him.
In the most violent of the unreported protests, photojournalist Borut Živulović ended up in the emergency room with a broken face. Živulović was injured by Grega Mitev. However, several people were injured during the protest in question. One of the organisers of the protests, Anis Ličina, defended the beating of Živulović in an interview with public television (RTV Slovenia), which supported the protests, saying: “You just have to wear a vest, anything marked with RTV, and you won’t get hurt.”
The national media outlet, Radio-Television Slovenia, later apologised for this promotion of violence.
I asked the police to explain what was the reason for the unusual use of firearms this time. They have not yet responded to my question. The President of the largest opposition party, Janez Janša, has also pointed out the strangeness of what happened, reposting a video of the man in question on social media X and writing: “Does anyone know the man with the gun on his belt?”
Police: Weapons were discovered during a scuffle
Police officers in Celje explained that they were protecting an unannounced public meeting at which a large number of people had gathered. The police officers were carrying out their duties both in uniform and in plain clothes. Police officers carrying out their duties in plain clothes are obliged to carry at all times all the necessary equipment and means of coercion required for their work.
At the rally, police officers dealt with a breach of public order.
The violation occurred when a vehicle belonging to one of the media houses drove onto the scene, and a group of people started spitting and hitting the vehicle with flagpoles. One of the people present kicked the vehicle hard, according to the police. As the plain-clothes police officers were conducting the procedure with him, they escorted him out of the crowd in order to ensure the safe conduct of the procedure, at which point some of the bystanders intervened and insulted the police officers and tried to prevent them from conducting the procedure.
Regarding the visible weapon, they explained that the police officer whose weapon was visible in the video initially had his weapon under a layer of his outer clothing, meaning that it was not visible to the general public before a group of rally-goers attempted to prevent the offender from being taken away from the scene. Only after a scuffle was the weapon in plain view.
The offender was issued with a penalty charge order.
The Criminal Investigation Division of the Criminal Police Department of the Celje Police Unit will continue to collect information on persons who tried to prevent the police officers from removing the offender from the scene. If the elements of a criminal offence are established, the suspects will be criminally charged on suspicion of committing a criminal offence of preventing an official act or retaliating against an official.
Spletni časopis
