Today, the District Court in Kranj heard a claim for damages in which the President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) and former Prime Minister Janez Janša is seeking 900,000 euros in damages from the former prosecutors and judges who tried the Patria case. The Court will first decide on the potential liability of the prosecutor and the judges. The decision will be issued in writing. Janša is suing former prosecutor Branka Zobec Hrastar, Ljubljana District Court judge Barbara Klanjšek, Judge Milan Štrukelj, Supreme Court judge Vesna Žalik, and Supreme Court judge Branko Masleša. He accuses all of them of illegal work in the Patrial trial.
“To hold a trial is one thing, but a political showdown is something else entirely. This was a political showdown. To quote the former Constitutional Court judge Krivic, it is clear at first glance that what we were being tried for in the Patria case was not a crime… Those who participated in it knew that they were not conducting a trial, but a political execution… And that there would be no accountability or that they would not pay for the damages,” Janez Janša told the media.
Janša: This was a political showdown
Janša’s damages claim against the state and against former prosecutor Branka Zobec Hrastar, as well as against judges Barbara Klanjšek, Milan Štrukl, Vesna Žalik and Branko Masleša, is a move done in order to address the allegations of illegal work in the Patria trial, which eventually became time-barred. Janša accuses these individuals of abusing the instruments of the rule of law to change the course of political history in Slovenia. As he said in a press statement, he believes that this was a political reckoning or a “political execution” and that now it is them who must take responsibility for it and pay compensation, not the state with the taxpayers’ money. The trial has now been opened, and the President of the Slovenian Democratic Party, Janez Janša, when asked how he decided on the sum of more than 900 thousand euros, which is the amount of damages claimed (more precisely, the number is 901,119.96 euros), said that it is “a symbolic figure, but the actual damage caused could be measured in billions,” and added with concern that this “happened in independent Slovenia, not in a totalitarian state.” He believes that it is right that the consequences should be borne by the individuals who have committed this, not by the taxpayers.
Lawyers of the defendants: this would be a dangerous precedent
The defendants’ representatives warn that it would be a dangerous precedent if the defendants were to pay the damages out of their own pockets, while Emil Zakonjšek, the defendants’ attorney, believes that this would undermine the independence of the judiciary, which is the cornerstone of the rule of law. Miha Kunič, the attorney of former prosecutor Zobec Hrastar, the author of the indictment in the Patria case, believes that Janša’s lawsuit is an attempt to put pressure on the functioning of the courts, but this is obviously not true, given that Janša’s lawyer, Franci Matoz, has already assessed in the past that the proceedings have offered sufficient evidence to prove that the defendants acted arbitrarily with the intention of causing harm and thus fulfilled all the elements of liability for damages.
The decision will be issued in writing
After having seen the documentary evidence, judge Tanja Bizjak ruled that the case against the five individual defendants is already ripe for a decision, and she will therefore issue a partial written decision. She also refused the requests for evidence following the hearing of certain witnesses, including Constitutional Court judges Miroslav Mozetić and Mitja Deisinger. Matoz stressed, however, that the failure to take the proposed evidence constituted an absolute violation of due process, writes the Slovenian Press Agency.
Upon his arrival to the court, the SDS party President Janez Janša, when asked how he decided on the sum of more than 900 thousand euros, which is the amount of damages claimed (more precisely, the number is 901,119.96 euros), said that it is “a symbolic figure, but the actual damage caused could be measured in billions.” As he pointed out, “by abusing all the instruments of the rule of law, these specific individuals have changed the political course of history in Slovenia. This is an abuse similar to that of the trial of the four in the JBTZ affair. And this did not happen in the previous totalitarian state but in independent Slovenia. It would be very appropriate for the individuals who committed this to bear the consequences, not the taxpayers.”
Janša’s comment on the recent hearing was that “Obviously, things are moving in the direction favoured by those who tried unjustly, and unjust trials are criminal, but they have abused the judicial system for political reckoning, for influencing the political image of Slovenia… Now they want the people to pay. The judge has not accepted any proposal for implementation …” Janša is convinced that “To hold a trial is one thing, but a political showdown is something else entirely. This was a political showdown. To quote the former Constitutional Court judge Krivic, it is clear at first glance that what we were being tried for in the Patria case was not a crime… Those who participated in it knew that they were not conducting a trial, but a political execution… And that there would be no accountability or that they would not pay for the damages,” the Slovenian Press Agency reported.
Ana Horvat
