After he was forcibly brought to the hearing, even though he did not have to be there and had a legally valid reason to be absent from the trial, the Celje court has now filed a further indictment against former Judge Zvjezdan Radonjić for the “offence of unlawful, biased and unfair trial.”
Zvjezdan Radonjić has only one – clear – comment to make on all of this, but Supreme Court Judge Jan Zobec is appalled by the pogrom against his colleague: “I am shocked, such things did not happen even under socialism,” he said, adding that “this did not happen only to Radonjić, it happened to all of us”.
Zvjezdan Radonjić, a former Ljubljana District Court Judge who was sentenced by the court in Celje to a fine of 9,000 euros last week, due to defamation and libel, has now been charged by the same court with the offence of an unlawful trial, which was allegedly biased and unfair.
Radonjić: “The purpose of this was to tarnish my reputation”
Radonjić confirmed after talking to us that he was aware of the case. “Yes, Miha Kunič put this forward in the context of the Novič trial, and of course, the purpose of this whole thing was to tarnish my reputation, so to speak. I think the criminal charge was filed at the beginning of last year, and I think the indictment was filed at the beginning of this year, in the first half.”
When asked how he comments on the indictment, the former judge says that it is “plain nonsense,” and he believes that this comment is enough, because this whole thing does not deserve any other comment. The case is currently at the stage of the indictment, which is final and awaiting trial, but Radonjić believes that, judging by the court’s order, the case will not come to trial quickly. Radonjić is rather indifferent to what is happening and says that he is “not too worried. It’s all bullshit, if I’m convicted, I’ll be convicted, and you can’t defend yourself against bullshit […] there’s just nothing you can do here,” he said.
Supreme Court Judge Zobec: “This could happen to any of us tomorrow”
The brutal pogrom also horrified Supreme Court Judge Jan Zobec, who considers it a manifest violation of one of the most basic fundamental rights in a democratic society. The forced bringing of Radonjić before a judge is, in his opinion, a “brutal violation of the right to personal liberty” that is so “manifest, so blatant and so arbitrary” and has no basis in law whatsoever.
“The judge ordered that Radonjić be handcuffed after he left the hearing, which he no longer had to attend because, after the closure of evidence, the presence of the accused is no longer necessary for the conduct of the proceedings and the conclusion of the hearing,” he explained, adding that this was why Radonjić left, as he did not need to listen to the closing speech.
“And then what happened was that, as far as I am informed, the judge, on the basis of a verbal order, had the police officers bring Radonjić back in handcuffed, so the police officers handcuffed him in front of the court building, when he was supposedly already outside, and brought him back in, so that he was then handcuffed, which is also outrageous, and had to listen to something that he is not actually obliged to listen to,” explained Supreme Court Judge Zobec, visibly horrified by what had happened, stressing that this could happen to any one of us tomorrow.
“I am shocked, such things did not happen even under socialism,” the Supreme Court Judge stressed.
Judge Gordana Malović completely disregarded Radonjić’s right to a fair trial and personal dignity
What further shocked Judge Zobec was the fact that Judge Gordana Malović had in her possession the medical documentation confirming that the accused, former Judge Radonjić, was incapable of attending the hearing, but nevertheless had him forcibly brought back to the hearing. “In doing so, she violated not only his personal liberty, but also his right to a fair trial and to an effective defence, which is also a constitutional right. Such a trial cannot be fair, if the accused is not in a position to defend him or herself fully and effectively. Not to mention the violation of his dignity, his human dignity, his professional dignity,” Judge Zobec went on to say, adding that, in his view, this was a case of intimidation and a show of power as an example to younger colleagues and other colleagues.
“But look, if we have a president of a court who, as if he is a gunman, proudly shows off a revolver on his desk, what can we really expect from the other judges? To handle their clients with care? To respect human rights? No! We can expect them to be violent, to turn what was supposed to be their mission on its head, to not protect human rights nor control those who may violate them, no – they will not be doing any of that,” he said.
Zobec is concerned about people’s indifference to what is happening
“I am ashamed that after all these years in this profession, I have experienced such a fall and that none of my colleagues has spoken up so far,” said Supreme Court Judge Zobec, who has also written a column on the subject, which will be published in November. He stressed that if something like this had happened under the previous government, “the whole of Ljubljana would now be cycling and burning” and that he was “further worried about the indifference and apathy of the people who are not reacting to this at all.”
Tanja Brkić
