The former Minister of the Interior, Aleš Hojs, ordered a coffee in a Ljubljana café on Thursday morning. He was meeting with former US Ambassador to Slovenia, Joseph Mussomeli, with whom he has maintained good relations even after Mussomeli left Slovenia. Then, the former Interior Minister was recognised by a supposedly regular guest of the café, and the latter physically assaulted Hojs.
“I was having my morning coffee with former US Ambassador Mussomeli when a stranger approached me, started threatening me, attacked me, and then ran away,” Hojs wrote on Twitter.
In a conversation for our media outlet, Hojs said that a man sat down at a nearby table, but Hojs only noticed him briefly at first. The man then stood up, which Hojs himself did not see, then poured himself a glass of water, walked over to Hojs and Mussomeli’s table, and started threatening the former Interior Minister with physical violence and verbally – saying he “better watch out”. The fact that this was explicitly a political attack is confirmed by the words of the attacker, who criticised Hojs because of his work during the previous government’s mandate. “He poured water on my head, on my clothes, and then he ran out of the bar. I managed to get some pictures, but unfortunately, you can’t really see the attacker all too well in them,” Hojs told us.
The former Minister of the Interior then also posted the photos of his attacker on his Twitter profile, and we are publishing them in this article, too. If you happen to recognise the attacker, the Ljubljana police will be happy to receive information about him.
The former Interior Minister then called the police. He also confirmed what he had written on Twitter in our conversation – namely, that “The Police came very fast. They made a very correct and professional report.”
Hojs then added that the police should not have a very difficult job in apprehending the attacker. “I was told by the staff that this man is a fairly regular guest of the café, so they should have no problem identifying him.”
The former ambassador to Slovenia, however, was not targeted by the attacker. As Hojs explained, it was probably because he didn’t even know it was him.
Will law enforcement react as quickly as in the case of Nika Kovač?
It is worth noting that some time ago, the pro-government non-governmental organisation representative Nika Kovač was also the victim of an attack; she reported the attack to the police, who, in a lightning-fast action, apprehended her attacker, and the judiciary, with a speed that is not at all befitting its own reputation, as it is notorious for severe delays, sentenced the attacker to five years in prison. Just over four months elapsed between the attack and the sentencing.
“I think they should have no problem identifying and detaining the attacker […] However, we will see if the judiciary will be as efficient as it was in the case of Ms Nika Kovač,” Hojs added.
Gal Kovač
