By: Prava.si, L.K.F.
As reported by the Prava.si portal, “the mysterious but well-versed Tweeter Fajon revealed the law on the bar exam from 1972. Everything shows that she has found the original law that was in force in Slovenia at the time. Only this proves that Masleša should never be a judge!”
For more than a month now, part of the Slovenian media has been actively reporting on the farcical court telenovela on the appropriate education of Chief Justice Branko Masleša. A good month has passed since the Slovenian public wondered whether Branko Masleša had passed the relevant bar exam and diploma under Slovenian law. Regardless of the fact that the Faculty of Law (PF) Sarajevo and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia (VS RS) presented a copy of Branko Masleša’s diploma, it was very deficient and inadequate in terms of content, reports the Prava.si portal. The main question is still, “where is the seal?” on the presented copies of diplomas of PF Sarajevo and VS RS. Why is neither of the two copies of the diplomas presented certified as a certified copy of the 1977 graduate diploma presented on our medium?
Bar exam in record time?
Prava.si also estimates that his bar exam is also very questionable, as he could not have passed it in such a record time as it was presented on the copy of the bar exam shared with the Slovenian public by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia. Judgments of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia from 2017 and 2020 also appeared in the same way. It clearly states that bar exams from the former republics do not apply to the performance of the functions of a lawyer, prosecutor, or judge in Slovenia. This is also explicitly stated in the Judicial Service Act.
Prava.si journalist Luka Perš is considered a so-called frontman on the affair of Branko Masleša’s diploma in the work of the Slovenian media. But for all the revelations, he can thank his hard-working Twitter family and his sources. This time, Prava.si presents the findings of tweeter Fajon: “With her tweets, she proved to be one of the most knowledgeable legal experts, as she seems to be the only one in Slovenia to find the original legislation on bar exams. Based on the adopted law on conducting the bar exam from 1972, Branko Masleša should never hold the office of judge in the territory of Slovenia.”
Her revelations are of interest to both the professional and lay public. The Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, the Judicial Council of the Republic of Slovenia and the Ministry of Justice so far should respond to her findings. Prava.si was also critical that the Minister of Justice, Marjan Dikaučič, has not responded since the outbreak of the affair.
What does the mysterious, legally savvy Tweeter Fajon reveal?
They continued that the adopted legislation promulgated in the Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, marked UL SRS, 26/72, is already burdensome for Branko Masleša. Fajon wrote a significant comment: “Why was Branko’s ‘Certificate of Passing the Bar Examination, SRBiH’ of June 25th, 1976, on April 1st, 1980, when Masleša took office as a judge in Koper, insufficient and invalid in matters of national jurisdiction on the territory of the SRS invalid. UL SRS, 26/72.”
As the first piece of evidence, she submitted the Order promulgating the Judicial Signature Act. It was signed by the then President Sergej Kraigher on June 22nd, 1972. It states that the Bar Examination Act, adopted by the Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia at a session of the National Assembly on June 21st, 1972, is promulgated.
The first article of the law reads: “The bar exam is a professional exam conducted by law graduates to obtain the conditions specified by law for performing individual duties in courts, public prosecutor’s offices, public attorney’s offices, lawyers and other legal aid services, in services for punishing offenses and other duties in the field of justice.”
In defending the relevant education of the Supreme Judge Branko Masleša, information emerged that he passed the bar exam so quickly because he was “practicing” for the bar exam as a YPA employee during his military service. However, an individual wrote on Twitter that he remembers Masleša from Zadar when he also served in the army. Moreover, the said person is a former lawyer and should go through a similar procedure with Masleša as he did. However, according to the revealed document, Masleša passed the internship and the bar exam in just one year since he “passed” his diploma in 1975. Lawyer Marko Štrovs also questioned the authenticity of Masleša’s bar exam. He also did part of the bar exam as an intern as a YPA employee at the time, but he also had to go through a two-year internship. However, Masleša never did that, they say at Prava.si.
Here again is the revelation of tweeter Fajon, as the whole story and authenticity of Branko Masleša’s bar exam falls on the second article of the law passed in 1972. Among other things, it reads: “The bar exam may be taken by those who, as law graduates, have worked in court for at least two years.”
For Masleša the articles of the Judicial Examination Act of 1972 are burdensome
Furthermore, the Prava.si portal writes that Articles 17, 18 and 19 of the adopted law on the bar exam from 1972 are very burdensome for the former president of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia. It is clearly written in them that according to the adopted legislation from that year, Masleša did not meet any criteria to pass the bar exam. They also state that bar exams were recognised under the old legislation only until 1959. Branko Masleša was only seven years old at the time. “Read all three articles carefully and judge for yourself whether the arguments of the Tweeter Fajon are genuine enough that the current Supreme Judge Branko Masleša should not perform a thousandth of a second as a judge,” warned Prava.si.
Article 17 of the Bar Examination Act 1972 states that the bar examination is also equivalent to the judicial or bar examination, the examination for a lower legal officer, passed before December 29th, 1955, before the republican administrative body responsible for justice or the public prosecutor’s office of the People’s Republic of Slovenia, as well as other examinations, which according to the current regulations have been equated with the judge’s, lawyer’s, or bar exam.
Article 18 states that the bar examination is equated with the examination passed by officers of the legal service and military employees of the Yugoslav People’s Army as law graduates for major or military employee of the legal service III. class according to the programme, which includes the subjects listed in Article 12 of this Act.
The content of Article 19 is also interesting. It states that those who have passed the bar exam are equal in rights:
- those who have been elected or appointed as a judge, arbitrator of state arbitration, public or military prosecutor, public attorney or their deputy or assistant to the secretary or senior clerk or councillor of the Supreme Court before January 1st, 1959, and have worked at these positions for more than five years;
- those who, as law graduates, have been appointed to carry out investigations and inquiries in the public or state security service until January 1st, 1959, and who have performed this work for more than five years;
- those who, until the entry into force of this Act, worked as law graduates for five years in the Yugoslav People’s Army or at other bodies…
The legally savvy Tweeter also revealed that, in her opinion, the correct number on the bar exam of Supreme Court Judge Branko Masleša, presented by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, was not written.
Damijan Florjančič wants to sweep the question of the proper education of his predecessor Masleša under the rug
All indications are that the original legislation regarding the conduct of the bar exam in the former Socialist Republic of Slovenia has been discovered. Judging by this legislation, Branko Masleša simply should never have become a judge for even a thousandth of a day, let alone the president of the Supreme Judge, the portal clearly warns.
“Based on these facts, it is clear why the long-time Koper official colleague Masleša, the current President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia Damijan Florjančič wants to sweep the issue of proper education of his predecessor under the rug. It is time for the Minister of Justice, Marjan Dikaučič, to take responsibility. The legislature and the executive will soon have to write a new judicial reform, where only judges with the appropriate education under current Slovenian law will judge on behalf of the people. Who is lying to you? Tweeter Fajon or all those who protect and rescue ‘judicial soldier’ Branko? The decision is yours,” points out journalist Luka Perš.