By: T.F.
President of the Slovenian National Party (Slovenska nacionalna stranka – SNS), Zmago Jelinčič, published a shocking post on his Facebook profile on Saturday, which describes the events that happened almost three decades ago. Namely, he wrote about the incident that happened in Ljubljana, when Marjan Pogačnik, who was once a police officer and is now the President of the Ljubljana District Court, pointed a gun at Jelinčič’s head and threatened to shoot him if he did not surrender. In addition, Jelinčič was supposedly only wearing his underwear when this happened. The president of the SNS party did not disclose the details of why the unfortunate event happened and what the epilogue was.
“A little something from the famous history of the current president of the District Court in Ljubljana, Marjan Pogačnik.
In the early 1990s, shortly after our war for independence, he was the leader of the police strike unit, tasked with arresting me, as the president of the Slovenian National Party. At the time, I was living with my then-partner, MP Polonca Dobrajc, at Cigaletova Street 2 in Ljubljana, on the first floor of the apartment building. We heard that something was going on outside and saw a group of policemen pushing each other around and walking outside. Polona and I watched this scene through our window when the doorbell rang. Wearing nothing but my underwear, I went to open it and saw policeman Marjan Pogačnik, who was crouching slightly, with his legs spread, his face red and sweaty, who was holding a 9 mm Parabellum gun, which he pointed to my head and shouted in a trembling and hoarse voice: ‘Hands up!!! Don’t you move!!! I will shoot you!!!’
What happened afterwards is not really essential for this story, but this was probably the high point of comrade Marjan Pogačnik’s police career, which also certainly helped him secure the position of Mr President of the District Court in Ljubljana. However, even today, I believe he was ordered to shoot me if I resisted, but luckily that did not happen. Perhaps because there were too many witnesses in the police team.”
The President of the District Court in Ljubljana, Marjan Pogačnik, has recently become known to the public because of his prosecution of the former judge Zvjezdan Radojić, who acquitted Milko Novič in the case of the murder of Director of the National Institute of Chemistry Janko Jamnik, and later also publicly spoke about the vile actions of certain judges in some court cases and even about the corruption in the judiciary. Pogačnik initially denied that any disciplinary or criminal proceedings were pending against Judge Radonjić. He also assured that his job would not be endangered due to the decision in the trial of Milko Novič. The judge was not of the same opinion, however, saying that because he wanted to ensure that Novič’s trial was fair, he would never be promoted and would probably even be suspended in a month’s time. Two months later, the case was then heard by the Judicial Council, which concluded that the judge’s allegations were unfounded and a consequence of his subjective perception. Then the ethics commission, which operates within the Judicial Council, ruled that Radonjić’s statements were inconsistent with the code of ethics of the judiciary. According to Radonjić, Pogačnik is a member of the UDBA-mafia (UDBA is the former State Security Administration of Yugoslavia), who sold his soul, and a non-expert, against whom Radonjić has strong enough evidence that Pogačnik did not dare to file a private lawsuit against him.
There is not much to read about the alleged police career of Marjan Pogačnik on the official website of the District Court. The senior judge was born on the 26th of October 1963, and he permanently resides in Kranj. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana on the 8th of September 1987. After completing an internship at the then-Basic Court in Kranj, he passed the bar exam on the 24th of October 1990. IN approximately 25 years of service, he worked as a judge at the Basic and District Courts in Kranj, the District Court in Ljubljana, and for a certain period of time, he was also employed at the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior. For more than five years, he was also employed at international institutions (the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina) as an international judge and later as the state prosecutor for war crimes.
