A story that had been suppressed by the media for years unexpectedly emerged again. Dragica Kotnik, the prosecutor in the bulmastifi affair, was arrested in front of her home in Koper by the criminal police and brought to Ljubljana before an examining judge. There, Kotnik was supposedly handed a letter (we do not know what it was, but we can assume it was a summons to a trial). The Kotnik affair is reminiscent of many orchestrated affairs of the Slovenian judiciary – there are many anomalies and uncertainties.
Let us recap. In 2011, Dragica Kotnik allegedly handed a confidential document from the bulmastifi case to the journalist Mitja Lomovšek. In 2013, a criminal prosecution was brought against Kotnik. She is alleged to have abused her office (first paragraph of Article 257 of the Criminal Code). Usually, the court sends the accused a summons, then the bailiff attempts to serve the summons, and if this fails, it is followed by a forced production before the judge. This is usually done in a few weeks, perhaps months, but the process definitely does not take three years as in the case of Dragica Kotnik.
The prosecutor claims that the order for her prosecution was issued by a high-ranking judge
“I can now say that I have first-hand experience of the collusion of politics and public authorities as well as the abuse of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC) for private interests. The CPC initiated the procedure at the request of a person who wanted me prosecuted, basing it on statements from a colleague who said that I was speeding, that I was committing road traffic offences, and that I used the garage at work to park my personal cars. Of course, the CPC immediately started its investigation and discovered several criminal offences, including corruption and the misuse of powers … That it didn’t even have the authority to initiate the proceedings according to its own act (Integrity and Prevention of Corruption Act) and that there was no sign of any criminal offence didn’t even matter,” said Kotnik.