The Ljubljana District Court has recently convicted four police officers who cracked down on violent protests against the government of Janez Janša. As we were told by the court, the police officers were convicted by Judge Marko Beovič without a main hearing. We have also received a reply from the Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Slovenia, where they deny that the close family ties between the leader of the Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office and a politician from the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) had any influence on the course of the case.
“With regard to your questions about the specific case being handled by Judge Marko Beovič, we would like to inform you that in the criminal case pending before the Ljubljana District Court against four defendants for the offence of dereliction of duty under Article 258 of the Criminal Code (KZ-1), a judgment on a punishment order was issued on the 20th of January 2025,” the court said.
On the 5th of October 2021, violent protests raged in the centre of Ljubljana. The police managed to keep them under control, but only after using an array of coercive means, including tear gas and water cannons. The opposition shouted and screamed, and when it swept to power on the wave of protests, it also launched a pogrom against the police.
The sentencing of the four police officers, who were handed prison sentences of several months, is a consequence of this pogrom. This has been strongly criticised in public. Former Director-General of the Police, Dr Anton Olaj, commented on the verdicts, saying: “I have said publicly on several occasions that in such situations, despite caution, individual mistakes can be made, but that does not yet make these police officers criminals. I think they are being wronged, and the public security system is being irreparably damaged.”
The President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), Janez Janša, announced: “The next government will rehabilitate police officers who have been punished for carrying out their duties. At the same time, Antifa terrorists and other perpetrators of violence at the 2020-2022 protests will be punished.”
And former Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs, who was in office at the time of the protests, wrote on X: “To be clear: the police officers have been convicted because of a report that was politically commissioned by Golob and Bobnar and produced by Slavko Koroš. The latter was soon dismissed, but the report remained and went to the prosecutor’s office. The convicted police officers must appeal and legal help must be made available to them by the police.”
The court refuses to disclose the details of the verdict
We asked the Ljubljana District Court for details of the judgment, including the judgment itself, but did not receive them. “With regard to the question asking the court to comment on the public reaction (that the judges’ intervention in the functioning of the country’s security system is subversive and that injustice is being done to the police officers), we would like to inform you that we are not in a position to comment on an open criminal case,” we were told.
Meanwhile, the police officers in question, who are also members of the union, have announced an appeal. The Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office explained to the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) that it is still too early to talk about the police officers being convicted, because if they appeal, the verdict will be overturned, and the court will then call a main hearing in relation to the same case. The Trade Union of Police Officers of Slovenia has already come to the defence of the police officers, stating that none of the two police officers, who are members of the trade union, had been the subject of any disciplinary or other proceedings in the past.
The Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office denies the influence of close family ties on the course of the case
We have also received a reply from the Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office, which led the proceedings against the convicted police officers. A few days ago, we reported that the head of the Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office, Darja Šlibar, is the mother of the Secretary-General of the youth wing of Prime Minister Golob’s Freedom Movement party and municipal councillor, Nika Podakar, and that the Freedom Movement is the party that was brought to the National Assembly by the wave of protests. Despite their violent nature, members of the Freedom Movement still see the protests as positive.
When asked how they respond to accusations of potential bias in the conduct of proceedings, they told us that these ties play no role in service matters. “The head of the Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office has neither access to nor insight into the cases handled by the Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office’s special division, is not familiar with them, and all prosecutorial decisions are taken independently of the Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office’s management or anyone else,” they wrote.
Ž. K.
