More than a year ago, four Constitutional Court judges overturned the decision of five Constitutional Court judges who had suspended the implementation of the Radio-Television Slovenia Act in the part that was related to the management of this important public institution. They thus allowed the legal mandate of the previous RTV leadership to end prematurely and violently, which is against all legal and democratic norms. But that is not all. The President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, Matej Accetto, has made it clear that the Constitutional Court judges, who have been deciding on a priority basis (for more than a year) whether the Radio-Television Slovenia Act is constitutional or not, will not decide on it at all. After more than a year, we can all see that this is actually true.
Even back then, there were rumours that judge Accetto was supposedly buying himself a judgeship somewhere on the European level by doing this favour to left-wing politics and Prime Minister Robert Golob. These days, this information has come to light again, and it would not be surprising if the claims actually came true.
A few days ago, the five (politically left-wing) Constitutional Court judges decided not to review the petition of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) and the New Slovenia party (Nova Slovenija – NSi), who stated that the process of recognition of Palestine was in breach of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly and the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia. The five Constitutional Court judges in question thus approved the obvious breach of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly and the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia with their decision. I can only conclude that Slovenia no longer has a supreme guardian of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia and that many things that are manifestly unlawful and unconstitutional are consequently becoming lawful and constitutional. We can only suspect where all of this will take us.
“Justice” only for the elite
It is often said that we once lived under communism, which was hard and brutal and unforgiving of individuals, but that we now live in a democracy, a state governed by the rule of law, where we are free, etc. But is this really the case? It seems to me that this is only true of the elite.
A few days ago, we saw police officers bringing a handcuffed former judge, Zvjezdan Radonjić, before the judge in Celje, Gordana Malović.
I was horrified. Something like that did not happen even in the harshest of communist times. As a policeman at the time and their local boss, I can say this with all responsibility. Even then, and even more so now, it was the case, and it is even more the case now, that police officers handcuff a person if he or she is aggressive, if he or she is a danger to him or herself, to the police or to other persons, if he or she is likely to try and escape, etc. When I saw former Judge Radonjić handcuffed in the media, I suspected that this was a judicial and police abuse of law, the rule of law and more.
Let me remind you that this is the same judge who tried and acquitted Milko Novič, who was the suspect in the killing of the former director of the Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana. This was clearly a mistake on the part of former judge Radonjić, because, as he himself said, he should have convicted Novič on the dictates of some judges, but former judge Radonjić judged according to the law and not according to the dictates of others. That is why he lost his job as a judge and is now on trial for allegedly insulting a judge who urged him to convict Novič. Let us return to the judge who is now trying former Judge Radonjić in Celje, Gordana Malović.
Judge: “I am untouchable”
Radonjić has provided the judge with a medical certificate stating that he is on sick leave until the 18th of October 2024, and he has also provided the judge with an expert opinion stating that he is unable to attend the trial until the beginning of November this year due to health reasons, but that he will be able to attend the trial after the 1st of November this year, intermittently for a maximum of two hours per day. However, none of this changed anything. The judge decided, on the basis of the “I am untouchable” system, that Radonjić was avoiding the trial, so she issued a warrant to the police for Radonjić’s arrest. At the beginning of the trial, Radonjić allegedly asked the judge whether she had received the medical certificate and the expert opinion, to which the judge replied in the affirmative. If this information is true, then there is a clear abuse of power being committed by judge Gordana Malović, who should not have issued the order for Radonjić’s forcible arrest. Let me stress once again that I do not know of any case from the time of the former one-party and totalitarian system where such a thing ever happened. This, of course, raises the question of when the police handcuffed former judge Radonjić. If he was already handcuffed at his home when they began to carry out the arrest, this is a clear abuse of power and a criminal offence of ‘abuse of official position or official rights’ under Article 261 of the Penal Code, as well as the criminal offence of unlawful compliance in the performance of one’s duties under Article 262 of the same Code.
Some information indicates that former judge Radonjić left the courtroom prematurely, more precisely at the beginning of the verdict being read. According to media reports, judge Gordana Malović requested the police to bring Radonjić back to the courtroom, after which he was forcibly arrested by the police in the vicinity of the court and brought back to the court handcuffed. If this second interpretation is correct, then many things went wrong in this case as well. The presence of the accused, i.e. Radonjić, in the courtroom at the time of reading the verdict is not necessary at all, and any request by judge Gordana Malović to bring Radonjić back into the courtroom is illegal. Again, I see no reason for the police to have handcuffed former judge Radonjić unless he was resisting or fleeing from them – which, given his state of health, he certainly was not.
Despite some of the facts of this case not being perfectly clear, I cannot help but feel that this is a series of errors and illegalities on the part of both Judge Gordana Malović and the two police officers. It appears to be a show of power and revenge against the former judge Radonjić, which is chilling. A lot of work, then, for the President of the Celje High Court, Branko Aubrecht. Will he take it on, or will he turn a blind eye to what happened?
Dr. Vinko Gorenak
