ponedeljek, 24. december 2018

The former Udba chief Silvo Gorenc withdrew his criminal complaint against a journalist and a photographer


After the court found me not guilty of defamation of the former communist secret police chief Janez Zemljarič, his colleague Silvo Gorenc, who was Yugoslav head of the Udba, decided to withdraw his criminal complaint against me and my photographer for the same article in the Reporter magazine.
The trial was scheduled for December 4, but it was stopped due to withdrawal of the charge. Mr. Gorenc wrote in the explanation that he is an 88-year old man suffering from serious heart disease. He added it had taken very long time since his lawsuit was filed in April 2014, so he wasn’t interested in continuing the criminal law.

In January and February 2014 I wrote for the Reporter magazine some articles about the Udba crimes in Austria and Germany in the 1970s. I wrote about the murders of Croatian emigrants committed by killers of the Yugoslav secret police which was led by Slovenian top officials.

Silvo Gorenc was at the helm of its Slovenian branch from 1967 to 1969, then he led the Slovenian ministry of interior and after that he was the head of Yugoslav Udba from 1972 to 1974. On the other hand, Janez Zemljarič was in charge of the Slovenian Udba from 1973 to 1978.

As I wrote in my articles, Mr. Gorenc as the head of the Yugoslav secret police was responsible for the kidnapping of the Croatian student Stjepan Crnogorac in Salzburg in July 1972 and his disappearance without any traces after his interrogation in Ljubljana. Crnogorac was suspected of being connected with a group of Croatian guerrillas who crossed the border to trigger an uprising against the Yugoslav regime in the Croatian part of Bosnia.

I also published a document of the former secret police found by the researcher Roman Leljak in the Slovene State Archive relating this kidnapping. It read that Boris Mužič from the helm of the Slovenian Udba sent some data to Silvo Gorenc to Belgrade asking him for the payment of the agents who carried out the so called arresting of Crnogorac.

After Mr Leljak’s revealing of these documents the Austrian State Prosecution in Salzburg ordered the investigation of this crime and requested from the Slovenian police to interrogate Mr. Gorenc and Mr. Mužič, but the criminal law was later stopped due to lack of evidence. In January 2018 Mr. Mužič died at the age of 94.

Silvo Gorenc also filed a criminal complaint against Roman Leljak but it was also withdrawn when Leljak was acquitted in a private criminal complaint on the request of Janez Zemljarič.

Here are links for more information about this case:



petek, 12. oktober 2018

The court ruled I didn't defame ex Udba chief Janez Zemljarič



Dear journalist colleagues and my followers!

I would like to inform you that the court found me not guilty for defamation of the former Slovenian communist secret police Udba head Janez Zemljarič. The Ljubljana district court at the end of the trial on 1 February acquitted me in a private criminal complaint which was filed against me by Mr Zemljarič. On 12 September, his appeal was turned down by the Ljubljana court of appeal. The latter confirmed my exemption judgment taken by the Ljubljana district court. Both of the courts decided that I as a journalist had a justified reason to believe the documents of the former secret police found by a researcher Roman Leljak in the State Archive are authentic.

In January 2014 I wrote for the Reporter weekly magazine some articles about the Udba crimes in Austria and Germany in the 1970s. I wrote about murders of Croatian emigrants committed by the killer agents of the Yugoslav secret police Udba. Janez Zemljarič was at the helm of its Slovenian branch in 1975 when Nikica Martinović was murdered in his greengrocer in Klagenfurt. Mr Zemljarič claims he has nothing to do with the murders of Croatian emigrants. He denied that the Slovenian Udba murdered Martinović as well as any other Croatian emigrant. He felt dishonoured because of the published articles, so he filed a criminal complaint against me and my photographer for defamation. Just before the trial started he withdrew a complaint against the photographer but he insisted on prosecuting me.

Mr Zemljarič had also prosecuted Mr Leljak but he had lost that case too. Now I'm still waiting for the trail on behalf of Silvo Gorenc, the former head of the Yugoslav Udba, for the same articles. Finally, I would like to thank my solicitor Radovan Cerjak for an excellent defence. It was my privilege to be represented by a solicitor who achieved a ban of Tito's street in Ljubljana by the Slovenian Constitutional court.

Here are links for more information about this case: