Zvjezdan Radonjić, a judge suspended by a decison of the Vice-President of the Supreme Court, Miodrag Đorđević, recently asserted that “the Novič case will get absolutely time-barred, as the flag should fall around mid-October, to put it in chess terms.”
“Some people think that this shall happen in the middle of December, but that is not true, because the High Court in Ljubljana has already determined the practice that no suspension of procedures pursuant the COVID-19 rules shall affect the statute of limitations deadlines. The problem, however, is that there is a pressure to proceed urgently in this case, in order to give the impression that the judiciary is working on it and that, with a little luck, the court of first instance will deliver a verdict, most probably of not guilty, just before the expiration of the statute of limitations deadline,” said Radonjić in the TV show Tema dneva (September 8, 2020). In his opinion, the case may end with an explanation that this was his case anyway, and because he “does not know how to judge”, Novič would simply be acquitted due to “procedural complications” or due to “Radonjić’s violations”. The issue, however, would not make any sense anyway, because the case would get statute-barred before it could even reach the second-instance court.
It is clear today that the Novič case should not have existed at all. However, in a corrupt country like Slovenia, the masterminds together with the perpetrators of the murder of dr. Janko Jamnik could easily construct it. There is even a saying circulating among people: What cannot be bought with money, can be bought with a lot of money!
On twitter, we read Prime Minister Janša’s note: “My colleague, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, has just informed us that a law on judicial radical reform had been submitted to the parliament. Previously, Slovak police had arrested several dozens of corrupt judges, and many similar investigations will be finalized in the coming days.” Slovakia only did that after the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée. Just before his death, Kuciak investigated the activities of the Italian mafia group ‘Ndrangheta in Slovakia and its connections with Maria Troškova, an adviser to the then Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. This awaits Slovenia as well. I mean the law on radical reform of judicial.
The Novič case becomes statute-barred on 11 October. Only the president of the District Court in Ljubljana, Marjan Pogačnik, knows how it will become statute-barred.