By: C. Š. (Nova24TV.si)
On June 20th, 2014, when Janez Janša had to go to prison three weeks before the elections, Andreja Katič brought a bottle of champagne to the municipality of Velenje. Eyewitnesses say she was very excited and celebrated the victory over the “class enemy” loudly with her colleagues. Andreja Katič was the director of the municipal administration of the Municipality of Velenje from 1998 to July 2014. This is the municipality where the Social Democrats have had power since 1945. Velenje is also the place where the district court and the headquarters of the local SD organisation are located in the same building at the same address. The Municipality of Velenje also has a legal service, led by Suzana Žinić, a lay judge at the District Court in Celje.
Andreja Katič is now the Minister of Justice in the government of Dr Robert Golob. She also held this position in the government of Marjan Šarec. At the beginning of his term, Robert Golob, according to his own words and the testimony of a member of his government, gave a clear order to his subordinates to cleanse Slovenia or its state institutions of “Janša’s followers”. This was nothing new for Katič, as she is known in Velenje and beyond for publicly expressing her hatred for Janša and SDS at every step. She also incorporates this hatred into her numerous appearances at ZZB NOV events. It is enough to search the web, where you can find more than enough evidence. Therefore, it is not surprising that there are hints that Minister Katič, in addition to dealing with the Litijska affair, is directly involved in the project of “cleansing Janšism” at the highest level.
Today, the first in a series of hearings begins at the district court in Celje, which will drag on for three months, until the end of September. The target is once again the president of SDS, Janez Janša, whom the transitional left wants to convict again just before the next parliamentary elections. The process has been in preparation for a long 13 years and nothing has been left to chance. Boštjan Valenčič, a protégé of state prosecutor Hinko Jenull, has been appointed as the prosecutor. Hinko Jenull was once the alpha and omega of the Slovenian prosecution with direct access to key figures of the deep state. Today, he is probably less known to the general public than his son Jaša Jenull, a political cyclist, pursuer of fascists, amphibians, and Slovenian doctors.
Prosecutor Boštjan Valenčič was thus chosen as the successor to Hinko Jenull and enthusiastically took over the political prosecution in the Trenta case, dragging it out for almost a decade and a half with the help of the investigative judge. Then his career and financial ascent began. Despite his relative youth, he became the president of the Association of Prosecutors.
His wife, Martina Valenčič, posted interesting photos of her tattooed husband—the prosecutor—from exotic vacation destinations on the social network Instagram. Colleagues found it very unusual when, with a modest prosecutor’s salary, he bought an apartment in an elite location in the centre of Ljubljana, right next to the current headquarters of the Social Democrats on Nazorjeva Street.
As a point of interest: The investigative judge before the indictment in the Trenta case was Irena Topolšek. She faithfully followed the prosecution’s demands for years and persistently ordered new judicial assessments until prosecutor Boštjan Valenčič was somewhat satisfied with one of them.
At the District Court in Celje, which already has rich experience with political processes in the modern era, all necessary diligence was dedicated to the case. A whole series of hearings has been scheduled for a trivial case that in a normal country would be resolved by a judge in a maximum of two hours. According to many legal experts, the indictment is so absurd that it even surpasses the one in the Patria case. The president of SDS, Janez Janša, is accused of aiding and abetting the abuse of office. The alleged crime: In 1992, he bought the Trenta estate from a private individual for 45,000 Deutsche Marks and sold it to another private individual in 2005 for 120,000 euros.
A brief internet search reveals that real estate prices in this part of Slovenia increased on average three to five times after joining the EU. The aim of the process is not to prove that anything was wrong with the sale of the estate. The media has already “proven” this through 13 years of smearing. The goal is media noise and defamation of the accused during the series of court hearings, just as POP TV and RTV SLO did during the 50-plus hearings of the Patria affair. In the end, it does not even matter what the decision is at the highest court level because in the meantime, the accused can still be dragged through the courts for months and even sent to prison. When the judgment is then overturned, the media reports it once, and the news does not even reach the majority of the public.
So far, it is still not entirely clear in what order judge Cvetka Posilovič, lay judge Andrej Volk, and lay judge Suzana Žinić were appointed for the trial. Judge Posilovič is known mainly for the high sentences she has imposed. Some mention her acquaintance with Katič, related to administrative and judicial matters, but the information has not been verified.
Is it a “conviction” jury?
However, lay judge Suzana Žinić knows Minister Katič very well. She is the head of her legal department at the Municipality of Velenje. Experts say that it is impossible to hold a leading position at the Municipality of Velenje without an SD membership card. Or to advance to a leading position without the support of the SD mayor and/or Andreja Katič. Katič is also said to know the other lay judge, Andrej Volk, who worked in the neighbouring Municipality of Šoštanj. They are said to have cooperated well when he was one of the leaders in local LDS politics, for which he also ran in 2006. At that time, LDS mayor Kopušar is said to have employed him at the Municipality of Šoštanj. In 2022, he ran on the Naša dežela party list in the parliamentary elections.
There are numerous rumours about the close connections and acquaintances of several judges and lay judges, as well as Minister of Justice and Social Democrats official Andreja Katič, which we have not yet been able to verify. We are also checking the claims from two anonymous letters we received last week, which detail some allegedly controversial procedures at the district and local courts in Celje. There is no shortage of numerous juicy details about strained and particularly warm relations between some judges. We are verifying the information, so more on this next time.