“All I can say about Golob is this. As the State Secretary, he came to the Celje Police Directorate and behaved as if he were the chief of the police. He tried to give orders and influence the work of the police. This person does not bring anything good to politics,” reads a tweet written by former Director of Slovenian Criminal Police and lawyer, Dušan Mohorko, which he published in December 2021, before Golob became Prime Minister. One year later, we are witnessing exactly what Mohorko wrote then and reiterated today. He gave us an exclusive commentary on his writings and the whole story behind the story, based on his years of experience in the criminal police.
“If the profession continues to work, then neither the resignation of the Minister of the Interior nor the resignation of the Director of the Criminal Police cannot stop the investigations (of, say, the Gen-I energy company or the Prime Minister), which the new politicians mistakenly believe. But if they try, they will be processed themselves and jailed for it. And Minister of the Interior Bobnar knew this very well,” the former Director of Slovenian Criminal Police and lawyer Dušan Mohorko wrote on Twitter, who, based on his experience and expertise, assessed that Bobnar knew that certain cases and investigations, for example, those related to the Gen-I energy company, could not have been stopped, even if she had received a direct request from any politician, “it is enough to ask questions that are trying to influence – the people who understand this simply know what is at stake and give notice.”
“It was quite some time ago, I was the Director of the Celje Police Department at the time, and Golob was the then-State Secretary in the energy sector, on some official visits, I think to the Šoštanj Thermal Power Plant in Velenje, and when he was returning to Ljubljana, he stopped by, he wanted us to do some things at the Police Directorate. This is all that I can say,” said Mohorko, who added that he is not the only one who knows this and that many others are aware of it, some of them now retired, pointing to the Operations and Communication Centre. His claim is a clarification to his tweet, which he re-posted after a year, because he had already pointed this issue out a year ago, when Golob had just entered the electoral race.
“I do not know now who pressured the Director-General of the Police back then. But I do know how that, at that time, as State Secretary, Golob came to the Celje Police Directorate and tried to order us on what should be done. Of course, now as Prime Minister, he would never allow himself to do that – if you believe it.”
Somebody was apparently bothered by the fact that the police also deal with the energy segment
“The fact is that Bobnar is from the ranks of the criminal police, she slowly climbed the police career ladder, and, according to my information, of course, the criminal police work certain things in connection with the electricity segment, or GEN-I specifically, and that is how it is now,” Mohorko further explained, referring to his expertise and experience in the past. “This probably bothers someone in the government, who would probably like something, and that’s where it stops. The operational criminal investigators are working on cases, and the Minister and the Director-General are aware that even though some politicians might want to do so, they cannot stop certain investigations because that is not possible or not allowed. And Minister Bobnar is a “career criminal invesitgator-policewoman.”
Mohorko also said that for pressure to be exerted, a direct request from a politician is not required. “The Prime Minister is not going to call a minister and tell him not to investigate something; it is enough to ask questions that are trying to influence – the people who understand this simply know what is at stake and give notice,” Mohorko argued, citing as an example an excerpt from Bobnar’s letter to Golob, in which she wrote that Golob’s publicist, Vesna Vuković, had sent her a text message saying that “she didn’t know whether she would even report the torn posters to the police, because she knew who was in charge of the Nova Gorica Police Directorate,” which Mohorko understood to mean that that person is “someone they just don’t like, and that’s a lot of pressure, an enormous amount of pressure, in fact. Pressure is exerted with questions like that,” Mohorko said.
Mohorko: the announcement that she will take this to the prosecutor is “quite serious”
When asked whether he believes Bobnar did the right thing, Mohorko said he finds it difficult to say because, as he says, “she is the Minister, after all, and she has now entered politics – as far as I know, she already has a job lined up, and she did not leave because of some professional criteria,” but he believes that as far as Bobnar is concerned, the matter will be settled if she does get a job with the President Nataša Pirc Musar, which will supposedly happen soon, according to the rumours.
Otherwise, Mohorko believes that if she does not get the job, she may try to “prove by any means necessary that she fought for the profession,” explains Mohorko, adding that her announcement that she will hand the case over to the prosecutor’s office “is quite serious, and this could be quite a battle.”
Tanja Brkić
