The government of Robert Golob has appointed David Antolovič to the position of Director of the Criminal Police, who has been subject in the past to the control of the General Police Administration due to irregularities in his work. However, that was not the first time Antolovič has found himself under the scrutiny of his colleagues from the Police due to his (non) work. This has given the public the impression that the future head of criminal investigators is an “agent for special matters,” who treats the cases that involve influential and wealthy people differently from those that involve ordinary citizens.
The public first learned about the new head of the criminal investigators in 2019 when he served an invitation to a hearing to the secretary of the Commission for the Supervision of Intelligence and Security Services (KNOVS) in the middle of a park – as if we were still living in some other, totalitarian times. But Antolovič still enjoys the unconditional trust of the authorities, despite his totalitarian manners and despite the fact that he received a warning before criminal charges are pressed and his contract is terminated, due to negligent work. The new Minister of the Interior, Tatjana Bobnar, said that Antolovič is a top expert in the field of economic crime, who has not yet had the opportunity to share his side of the story. Apparently, he will now get his chance, since, as the Police has announced in recent days, the Acting Director-General of the Slovenian Police, Boštjan Lindav, MSc, “wants to place police experts in key positions whom he can trust and believe In their high professionalism and integrity, and with whom he will be able to realise the vision of the development of the Police, which will be primarily concerned with human safety.”
During the former government of Janez Janša, the former Minister of the Interior, Aleš Hojs, demanded control over the work of the National Bureau of Investigations, where Antolovič was the assistant director, due to unreasonably long investigation times, which did not yield results. “One of the main weaknesses of the National Bureau of Investigations, which has been evident since its establishment in 2010 and until today, is that the office wants to choose by itself what it investigates. An example of such an investigation is the case of the Šoštanj Thermal Power Plant, which had to be concluded by the Celje police, which is scandalous,” Hojs said at the time.
Accusations of intentional stalling
In the past, Antolovič has also faced allegations of ineffective investigations into the Janković family. In his response to the retired prosecutor’s allegations that stalling only occurs in the cases of influential and wealthy people, he said on the show Tarča (Target) that he and the criminal police treat all cases the same, but he was not able to explain why it took so long to conclude the investigation of the pharmacist case, in which the mayor of Ljubljana, according to the victim’s confession, requested sexual services from her in exchange for helping her find housing. We heard similar accusations against Antolovič during the investigation of the Šešok family.
Totalitarian approaches in democratic Slovenia
Antolovič already became known to the public with his unusual approaches in 2019, when he served an invitation to a hearing to Marinka Bogomil, the then-secretary of the Commission for the Supervision of Intelligence and Security Services (KNOVS) in the middle of a park. The purpose of the hearing in question was to obtain additional materials from the Commission for the Supervision of Intelligence and Security Services in the Škerbinc case. The case involved the illegal dismissal of Commander Miha Škerbinc, which happened because he allegedly spread some lies about the Chief of the Slovenian Army at the time, Major General Alenka Ermenc. The then-vice-president of the Commission for the Supervision of Intelligence and Security Services and SDS MP Žan Mahnič wrote at the time that “any handing over of material to these regime apparatchiks is a shot in the knee to democratic control of the intelligence and security services.”
Will Antolovič’s first victim be Nova24TV?
In the well-informed circles, rumours have already circulated that the latest personnel move by Golob’s government will be followed by revenge on our media outlet. With this, it should also be pointed out that David Antolovič’s partner is Damjana Seme, a journalist for the 24ur media outlet. The largest commercial television station, POP TV, part of which is also 24ur, will now have its resources in the criminal police as well, and this media house has already been operating in a similar way of political-media “cooperation” since its running had been taken over by the news programme editor Tjaša Slokar Kos, who is the wife of the former agent Drago Kos.
Andrej Žitnik
