Piše: C. R.
At the Kranj District Court, the hearing of the compensation lawsuit filed by SDS president and former prime minister Janez Janša against the state for criminal prosecution and imprisonment in the Patria case concluded today. Janša stated in today’s renewed hearing that he still feels the consequences of the Patria trial. The verdict will be issued in writing.
Janša said that the criminal prosecution and conviction prevented him from participating in the election campaign, as he was sent to prison shortly before the elections. The humiliations continued even after the Constitutional Court’s decision. He said that he is still often publicly treated as if he had been legally convicted. He especially highlighted debates and statements from coalition MPs, including the Speaker of the National Assembly.
At the beginning of this year, the state paid Janša 44,000 euros in compensation with interest for the criminal prosecution and imprisonment in the Patria case, while Janša is demanding around 900,000 euros from the state. According to his lawyer Franci Matoz, the claim is based on the length of the proceedings, which they believe were unlawful, the publicity of the case, the unlawful imprisonment, and the fact that Janša’s good name and personality continue to be affected as a result of the proceedings.
In his closing statement, Matoz said there is no doubt that the entire Patria case procedure was unlawful from the very beginning: “It was evident that the goal was to incapacitate Janša on a personal and political level.”
“The entire procedure was highly publicised. Throughout, an impression was created that it involved large bribes, even though this was never charged in the indictment, that it was about major corruption, which consequently affected the reputation of the plaintiff, who was at that time the prime minister,” Matoz stated.
When he was sent to serve the prison sentence, he and his party were prevented from participating in the elections, the lawyer continued. He also added how difficult the separation from his family was for Janša, given he has two small children.
“After all verdicts were overturned, instead of conducting a new trial, the district court issued a decision to discontinue the proceedings due to the statute of limitations,” Matoz said, convinced this was also intentional so that Janša could still be accused of being convicted and that the case never got a final resolution.
“As a result, the plaintiff is still subjected to insults, mockery, accusations that he was legally convicted, accusations about the case being time-barred because the defence appealed, and so on,” Matoz emphasised. Janša said that the intensity of these accusations increases before every election.
On the other hand, state prosecutor Jasna Lovrec, in her closing statement, assessed that the plaintiff party failed to meet the burden of proof regarding the alleged unlawfulness of the criminal procedure or the alleged unlawful conduct of the prosecutor and judges. “The closing statement of the parties is their own perspective, which may include claims that are not true,” she stressed.
Both Lovrec and Matoz objected at today’s conclusion of the main hearing due to the non-admission of evidence they proposed. However, judge Tanja Bizjak considered the case ready for judgment. She is expected to issue a written verdict before the judicial recess. If she finds that additional evidence needs to be presented, she announced she will schedule a further hearing.
Janša hopes the case will finally be concluded soon. Including the transfer of jurisdiction from the Celje to the Kranj court, the process has been ongoing for six years. The first hearing at the Kranj District Court took place in 2022. In 2023, the court rejected Janša’s lawsuit against the prosecutor and judges and ordered him to pay costs, but the lawsuit against the state continued.
“They were only in a hurry until they acquitted those who falsely prosecuted and judged, imposed enormous court costs, and now it has taken two years until my renewed hearing, which I do not even know why was necessary, since I said everything back then,” Janša said. Regarding the verdict, he fears that the compensation will not even cover the costs he incurred, and that the outcome will ultimately be negative.
