“When I say that judge Pogačnik is a criminal, I am referring to all of this evidence,” former judge Zvjezdan Radonjić stressed in court. He will explain his claims in more detail during his defence at the start of the main hearing, which is scheduled for the 13th of December. At that time, the President of the Ljubljana District Court, Marjan Pogačnik, who was not present in court on Friday, is also expected to be heard in the case.
At Friday’s pre-trial hearing, former judge Zvjezdan Radonjić pleaded not guilty in the case in which the prosecution accuses him of insulting the President of the Ljubljana District Court, Marjan Pogačnik. He said he has evidence for all his claims, but on Friday, he was once again critical of Pogačnik. The main hearing in this legal matter is scheduled for the 13th of December, reports Slovenian Press Agency. Namely, the former judge of the Ljubljana District Court is being prosecuted by the Prosecutor’s Office in Celje for what he said in July 2020 in an interview with the weekly Demokracija. At the time, Radonjić accused Pogačnik of engaging in illegal actions and said, among other things, that he treats judges at the district court like dogs.
“They bestow titles and honours on each other, they talk around, promote and elevate each other, the semi-literate give themselves the titles of senior and supreme judges. Disciplinary proceedings and criminal complaints are not brought against the serial petitioner of each repeated petition. People who should have been sent behind bars a long time ago are sending those who are in their way to court, and they always defend themselves and those who are loyal to them. Everything that is free in the judiciary has been or will be chased out of the ranks of the judiciary. The consciousness of being fully covered for all of their past and possible future shit that they have committed and will commit has given birth to an incomprehensible degree of arrogance, of courage incomprehensible to the average person, in the face of the consequences of the worst possible actions,” Radonjić wrote in Demokracija, among other things, describing the modus operandi of the main players in the Slovenian judicial system, adding that they simply dare to do everything, which, more than about them, is a testimony of political responsibility.
Radonjić has proposed that around ten judges be questioned to confirm his allegations
During Friday’s evidence session at the District Court in Novo mesto, Radonjić said that the statement had to be understood in a broader context and that he wanted to illustrate the inappropriate attitude Pogačnik already had towards judges. Among other things, he allegedly illegally set deadlines by which they had to make decisions, otherwise, he threatened them with writing reports. He frequently interfered in their work unlawfully and pressured them. Radonjić has proposed that around ten judges be questioned to confirm his allegations. Among others, he proposes to question the judge who tried the late doctor Ivan Radan, who allegedly had to write at least ten reports for Pogačnik during the trial in question. Radonjić also proposed that Judge Vesna Podjed be questioned, who, he says, would know more about how she had to come to court during her sick leave and sign a statement in support of Pogačnik. According to Radonjić, one of the proposed witnesses could testify to how Pogačnik illegally sent judges to the defence of the then-Prosecutor-General Hari Furlan because the court dismissed one of the indictments due to a prosecutorial error. He also proposes to question Judge Ana Testen, whom Pogačnik, according to Raognjić, transferred to the District Court in Kranj, for several months without a proper order.
“When I say Pogačnik is a criminal, I am referring to all of this evidence,” Radonjić was clear. He is expected to elaborate on his claims during his defence at the start of the main hearing, which is scheduled for the 13th of December. Pogačnik, who was not in court on Friday, is also expected to be heard in the case at that time. The hearings of the remaining witnesses are scheduled to start on the 10th of January. The court has yet to decide how many witnesses will be heard. Radonjić also announced today that he will not appear in court again after his defence until the end of the trial and will give his permission to be tried in absentia.
“This time, they will surely get rid of me, remove me, show me urbi et orbi that their omnipotence knows no limits. Pogačnik will be re-elected President of the court, his well-known primitiveness of the sub-Balkan snooping type will get the ultimate confirmation for all future miseries. What little integrity and honour there is will definitely leave the court, with the last of us being removed through disciplinary procedures for the benefit of others. The judiciary will not be able to recover for at least another 10 years, which is obviously the ultima ratio of all of these proceedings. Someone wants to destroy the rule of law in Slovenia. I don’t really know who, but I know for sure who within the judiciary is involved in this,” Radonjić announced in 2019, revealing in a public letter how brutally the crooked judicial mafia is pressing him and the dirty role played by the President of the Ljubljana District Court, Marjan Pogačnik, in the erosion of the rule of law.
Sara Bertoncelj
