By: Domen Mezeg /Nova24tv
“Thank you to the flywheels of the 2014 Committee and especially to you, Aleš Primc. The truth prevailed because it had your courage. They wanted to erase us, but we got up and stayed. And we are still standing. Stronger than ever,” the current Prime Minister Janez Janša recalled the tragic events of seven years ago, when he was unjustly imprisoned.
With these words, he also responded to the record of the spring politician and great fighter for children’s rights Aleš Primc: “20.6.2014. A day that slowed down Slovenia’s development for almost 6 years. Thank you to all of you who have pledged your name, word, time and money, for justice and truth. Thank you for fighting peacefully, culturally and with dignity.”
On this day, June 20th, 2014, seven years ago, the greatest abuse of the rule of law took place to remove a political competitor – Janez Janša, in the history of Slovenia and the EU. To this end, the now legendary Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was established – the 2014 Committee, which demanded: the adoption of an immediate decision by the Supreme Court to suspend Janša’s prison sentence, the abolition of the unconstitutional, illegal and unjust judgment in the Patria case, the effective establishment of the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the establishment of a democratic state.
The first two points of the 2014 Committee have been reached, but the demands in the third, unfortunately, have still not been met. In more than three years, protests took place in front of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia “peacefully and with dignity, but resolutely and relentlessly”, where hundreds of speakers drew attention to the “work” of the deep state with their views and findings. The latter still abuses justice today to protect the “holy grail” of the post-communist octopus.
“They can physically separate you from us, but they cannot shut off our love and they cannot kill the truth”
The wife of the prisoner, Urška Bačovnik Janša, said goodbye to her husband: “I would accept your departure to prison if it was a punishment for the act you committed. And an opportunity for remorse. I know that you would have humbly accepted the punishment without saying a word. But I will never accept this shameful, primitive, insulting and, above all, unjust condemnation.” /…/ “They can physically separate you from us, but they cannot shut off our love and they cannot kill the truth. As I put our sons to sleep today before we left, I was wondering when you would do it again. Janez, very soon, says my heart. We love you, Jakob, Črtomir, Nika, Žan, and Urška. Thank you to everyone who stands by our side.”
On Friday afternoon, the atmosphere in the nearby village of Dob was charged with emotion. The crowd of several thousand people experienced D-Day for Janša and all of us with hurt, sadness, despair, anger and rage. Slovenian flags fluttered, banners were raised in the sky, warning that the SDS leader was being subjected to immense injustice. That Janša is the new Nelson Mandela, that the Rudolf Maister of modern times is being imprisoned. That the “Yugoslavs” are imprisoning the independence activist. That Kučan’s Udba is responsible for the crisis in Slovenia and that Masleš’s judiciary is “carpeting” Slovenia.
Janša was politically imprisoned for the third time by 2014
On the posters, people demanded freedom for Janša. One of the highlights of the rally in support of the hero of Slovenian independence was the speech of Urška Bačovnik Janša, who drew attention to the skyrocketing injustice happening to Janša and his family and all those who care at least a little about justice and truth. Namely, what had happened should not have happened if Slovenia had really been a legal and democratic state. The leader of the opposition had to go to Dob prison on the basis of a politically mounted verdict of the red “perjury”.
Janša proved once again that he is a great man. On Friday, with Urška, party comrades and friends, he dignifiedly endured this immeasurable injustice, his re-entry into prison. Let’s remember: Udba under the leadership of the last head of the party, Milan Kučan, imprisoned him for the first time on May 31st, 1988, because he was a “spoke” that had to be cut down. Until the trial at Roška in the summer of 1988, he was imprisoned in a military prison in the middle of Ljubljana. Second, on the basis of a mounted judgment of a military court of the so-called Yugoslav People’s Army he was arrested on May 5th, 1989, when he was taken to serve his prison sentence in Dob. This time he was going to jail for the third time.
To this day, we are witnessing an unhealed wound of injustice
In November last year, the Supreme Court in the senate, which consisted of supreme judges and Rudi Štravs as president and Mateja Končina Peternel, Ana Božič Penko, Karmen Iglič Stroligo, and Tomaž Pavčnik as members, in the case of SDS against the Republic of Slovenia for payment of compensation in the amount of 886,257.37 euros due to damage caused to the party by the judicial authorities in their decision in the Patria trial, upheld the revision of the judgment. The judgment of the court of second instance was annulled and the case was returned to this court, i.e. the High Court in Maribor.
The decision was taken unanimously. “Now they will have to consider our arguments!” the SDS party’s lawyer Franci Matoz commented on the Supreme Court’s decision. According to various media reports, “March 11th – The Maribor High Court again rejected the SDS’ appeal, which demanded 886,257 euros in compensation from the state with interest due to the impact of the trial in the Patria affair on the parliamentary elections in 2011 and 2014”.