By: Peter Truden / Nova24tv
Supreme Judge Branko Masleša has problems not only with proving the authenticity of his diploma, but also with events from the past. Allegations of his experience of shooting at refugees are coming to light again, and he also signed an unconstitutional conviction of those accused in the Patria political trial.
The book Legendarni slovenski obveščecalci by Marijan F. Kranjec, published in 2011, also contains records on the shooting at the border during the communist era and on the military counter-intelligence service – KOS, where the Supreme Judge Branko Masleša is among the recipients of the plaque.
The case certainly means a black mark for Masleša, who at the time, when he was still judging as a Party judge, had a certain fascination with death. As we have already reported, Masleša was a cruel judge already during his service at the Criminal Court in Koper during the communist regime. He also expressed the last death sentence, with which he made history and secured recognition also outside Slovenia, as he sentenced an insane to death.
As the commentator explained to Nova24TV, “he was later found to be insane, this is the Morgan case. The convict was later sent for treatment to a psychiatric hospital in Idrija, where he also died of natural causes. Masleša declared the death sentence in the first stage, but on the appeal stage the sentence was changed to imprisonment.” The death penalty was otherwise carried out by shooting.
Masleša excited about the shot to the head that killed a fugitive
Masleša described an even more serious incident – which is said to have taken place in 1984, when, according to Chief Justice Rudi Štravs, a Romanian refugee was shot dead while fleeing across the Iron Curtain to the West – with enthusiasm. In 2010, Štravs confirmed the claims of the then Constitutional Judge Jan Zobec that Masleša enthusiastically described the shooting at the border. In the early 1980s, Štravs was a judge in the civil division of the then Basic Court in Koper. He served there together with Zobec, and Masleša was a criminal judge.
As reported on RTV Slovenia, Štravs recalled, “how in the summer of 1982 or 1983 Masleša came from a visit of a fugitive across the Yugoslav-Italian border and told how a soldier shot someone with a very accurate shot to the forehead.” It was only later that Zobec, described by Štravs as a man who “prefers truth to friend”, told him that a Romanian had been shot at the border trying to escape communist hell. It is significant, however, that even before Masleša was appointed head of the Supreme Court, Štravs was aware that Masleša’s revenge could soon befall him. “If Masleša is appointed head of the highest court in the country, he is aware of the problems. Also, possible revenge,” the infamous Eugenija Carl reported in an article for RTV Slovenia.