Dear journalist colleagues
I would like to invite you to follow the trial against me and my photographer
on behalf of the former head of the Slovenian communist secret police Udba.
According to the Slovenian Penal Code defamation in the printed media is
punishable by fine or by imprisonment up to six months. On Monday 4 December at
8.30 at the Ljubljana district court a trial starts for defamation of the
former Slovenian Udba head Janez Zemljarič who felt dishonoured because of
articles I wrote in the Reporter weekly magazine in January 2014. In these
articles I wrote about the murders of Croatian emigrants abroad in 1970s by
killer agents of the Yugoslav secrete police Udba. My story followed the
extradition of two Croatian former Udba heads Josip Perković and Zdravko Mustač
against whom a trial started in Germany and who later were found guilty and
sentenced to a life prison.
The former chief of the Slovenian
communist secret police Udba Janez Zemljarič filed a private criminal
complaint against me and my photographer for defamation due to three articles
in the weekly magazine Reporter. Since I wrote some articles about his role in the
Udba murders of Croatians emigrants he felt dishonoured. Mr. Zemljarič has felt
also dishonoured because of two published photomontages on the front pages of the
magazine, thus he blamed the photographer Primož Lavre for doing this. In fact
the photographer has nothing to do with these photomontages, he is not even the
author of the published photographs. On the first photomontage there is Mr.
Zemljarič shown as a man with a machine gun, there are also photos of the
murdered Croatian emigrant Nikica Martinović and his probable murderer, the
Udba agent called Hanzi. The first article has the title Call Zemljarič
for Murder. On the second photomontage Mr. Zemljarič is standing with his
Udba companion Mr. Silvo Gorenc both armed with guns and there is also Mr.
Milan Kučan, the former chief of Slovenia’s Communist Party, above them as an
angel. The second article has the title An Angel between the
Executioners. The third annoying article has the title Face to face
with Zemljarič.
In fact there is no valid basis for Zemljarič’s complaint regarding the
articles. My articles were written on the basis of a document found by the
researcher Roman Leljak in the state archive. According to this document dated
4 February 1975 the chief of the Udba section for hostile emigration Milan Pavlin
wrote to the Udba chief Janez Zemljarič that they were planning some concrete
actions against extremists as opponents living abroad were marked. Pavlin
mentioned two Croatian extremists, one living in the USA who was planning to
visit Vienna, and the second who hadn’t been yet chosen but it was up to Hanzi
to find one of the extremists he knew very well. Later they would decide whom
Hanzi should target. Zemljarič as chief of the Udba approved these actions
writing the manuscript: “I agree with the proposals.” There is also his
signature under his written text. On the same day when Pavlin wrote to
Zemljarič Hanzi got two passports and ammunition for the machine gun. Two weeks
later Nikica Martinović was shot dead in his greengrocer in Klagenfurt.
Besides this document in the state archive a document was found which shows
that the Croatian emigrants in Carinthia had been observed by Udba since 1962.
The document, also signed by Zemljarič, consists of a plan to eliminate an
organisation called Bleiburg Honorary Line till May 1975. Martinović was the
secretary of this organisation which was planning to organise the great
commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the so called Bleiburg slaughter in
May 1945. This commemoration would have been held on the former Bleiburg battle
field and well visited by numerous Croatians from around the world. The
Yugoslav authorities were very angry whenever emigration groups reminded about
the crimes committed by Tito’s partisans after World War II.
Zemljarič claims that he has nothing to do with the murders of emigrants.
He denied that the Slovenian Udba murdered Martinović as well as any other
Croatian emigrant. According to his words Martinović was assassinated by the
Croatian terrorist group called the Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood which he
had belonged to. Zemljarič filed a document showing that this organisation
admitted the assassination of Martinović due to his treason. But this document
is very suspicious since it is not a part of the state archive. Moreover,
asking the expert for Croatian emigrant organisations Mr. Bože Vukušić who is
also the author of a book about the Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood he
replied that the seal on this document is forged. This seal was used only by
the first leader of this organisation who was kidnapped and murdered in 1965,
so ten years before the assassination of Martinović. Vukušić sent me the
original seals used by this organisation and they all differ from that in the
document filed by Zemljarič. Vukušić therefore filed a complaint to the police
against Zemljarič due to forgery. So we could expect a very interesting
discussion on 4 December when the trial for defamation in court starts. It is
not surprising that few weeks ago Zemljarič lost the trial against Leljak who
had been also sued by him for defamation in the same case.
Janez Zemljarič was the chief of the Slovenian Udba from 1974 to 1978,
after that he was Secretary of the Interior till 1980 and then the President of
the government of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia till 1984. This is not the
only criminal complaint for these articles against me. There is also Mr. Silvo
Gorenc who was the head of the Yugoslav Udba from 1972 to 1974, before that he
was the head of its Slovenian branch and the Secretary of the Interior from
1966 to 1969 and 1969 to 1972 respectively. He also felt dishonoured because of
articles I wrote in the Reporter weekly magazine in January 2014. The preliminary
hearing at the Ljubljana district court took place in November 2014 but the trial
hasn’t been called yet. I wrote more about this case in my blog:
More:
http://igorkrsinar.blogspot.si/2014/11/udba-progoni-slovenske-novinare.html
