SLOVENIA: COM MEETS NEW JUSTICE MINISTER LOVRO

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 001111

SIPDIS


DEPT FOR EUR/NCE AND L/LEI (K. PROPP)
USDOJ FOR OIA (D. GAYNUS)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2014
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR SI
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: COM MEETS NEW JUSTICE MINISTER LOVRO
STURM


Classified By: Chief of Mission Thomas B. Robertson for reasons 1.4(b)
and (d).


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On 13 December, COM called on newly
confirmed Justice Minister Lovro Sturm and raised
denationalization of AmCit-held property, court backlogs, the
pending Slovenian request for the return of alleged financial
criminal Davorin Sadar, and the need to negotiate a mutual
legal assistance (MLA) protocol under the overarching U.S.-EU
agreement. Telling COM he wanted to "deepen ties" between
the two countries, Sturm mentioned the possibility of
improving relations between U.S. and Slovenian young lawyers,
and he made a plug for inviting prominent guests from the
U.S. to speak in Slovenia. COM was accompanied by DCM,
Conoff and Pol-Miloff. Sturm was joined by State Secretary
Robert Marolt, Chief of Staff Janko Koren, and staffer Blaz
Ivanc. Hours after the meeting, Slovenian press outlets
reported that COM had "promised" Sturm that the U.S. would
extradite Sadar. Embassy issued a press release on 14
December clarifying the inaccurate report. END SUMMARY

JUDICIAL REFORM AND BILATERAL EXCHANGES
--------------


2. (SBU) After Sturm opened the meeting by expressing his
wish to "deepen ties" between the U.S. and Slovenia, COM
agreed that efforts should be made to deepen and improve the
good bilateral relationship that already exists. COM
highlighted a series of recent and upcoming exchanges focused
on legal and judicial reform, and he asked Sturm to suggest
specific areas for future cooperation. Sturm said he would
like to see improved education and research opportunities in
the U.S. for young Slovenian lawyers. He also encouraged the
possibility of inviting prominent U.S. guests to give
lectures in Slovenia, mentioning former Education Secretary
William Bennett and columnist Thomas Sowell by name.

DENATIONALIZATION
--------------


3. (SBU) Despite an impressive record in Slovenia on
resolving denationalization cases, COM told Sturm the process
seemed to work more slowly for AmCits and asked if procedures
might somehow be streamlined. Sturm said he was quite
familiar with the issue from his days as a Constitutional
Court judge and pointed to the Constitutional Court's
decision to give priority to denationalization cases. He
assured COM that AmCits are not being discriminated against
and attributed delays to the difficult nature of certain
cases. DCM highlighted the specific case of a city-run
kindergarten adjacent to the Embassy as one such difficult
AmCit case, where political equities may have contributed to
delays.

COURT BACKLOGS
--------------


4. (SBU) COM expressed concern about the Slovenian court
system's considerable backlog issue, highlighting the
negative implications for foreign direct investment when
businessmen cannot rely on swift justice to settle commercial
disputes. Sturm said improving backlogs is "one of the
greatest tasks of the Ministry" but that the problem would
not be easy to solve. Nonetheless, he said the MoJ will look
at ways to optimize court procedures and improve legislation
to deal with the problem. He asked for help from U.S.
experts, noting that one-third of backlog problems stem from
delayed execution of judgments. COM suggested inviting D.C.
Superior Court Judge Nan Shuker to continue her work with the
Slovenian judiciary in this area.

EXTRADITION AND DAVORIN SADAR
--------------


5. (C) COM told Sturm that progress was being made on
Slovenia's request for the provisional arrest and return of
Slovenian citizen Davorin Sadar, who had been accused in
Slovenia of financial crimes. COM said it appeared Sadar
would be deported rather than being extradited. Sturm said
he had heard about the deportation solution and agreed that
it would be simpler. Conoff stressed that U.S. law forbids
speaking to the press about specific deportation and/or
extradition cases. Conoff told Sturm that Sadar would be


escorted back to Slovenia by a DHS officer if he loses in his
deportation hearing appeal. When pressed by Sturm for the
timing of Sadar's deportation, Conoff said he did not know
but guessed by the end of January 2005.


6. (U) More generally on the topic of extradition, COM told
Sturm the U.S. looked forward to starting negotiations soon
with MoJ on a bilateral protocol to the 2003 U.S.-EU
Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement. He
explained that protocols will be negotiated with each EU
member state under the overarching U.S.-EU Agreement.

THE SADAR CASE AND THE SLOVENIAN PRESS
--------------


7. (C) Hours after the meeting, Slovenian press outlets
reported that COM "assured Justice Minister Lovro Sturm in
Monday's talks that the U.S. would extradite Davorin Sadar."
Embassy issued a press statement on 14 December to clarify
the record, and Embassy protocol officer spoke with Koren to
ask if any of the participants in the meeting had spoken to
the press and tell them that - if so - the information they
released was inaccurate and could hamper proceedings over
Sadar. Koren was very apologetic and attributed the "error"
to the inexperience of the new Minister's team.


8. (U) The text of the Embassy press statement is as follows:

"In a meeting December 13 with Justice Minister Dr. Lovro
Sturm, U.S. Ambassador Thomas B. Robertson discussed the
Embassy's ongoing cooperative legal efforts in the case of
Davorin Sadar, a Slovene citizen. The Slovene government has
announced it is requesting that U.S. authorities return Sadar
to Slovenia. While the Embassy is unable to fully discuss
the details of this case due to privacy laws, we would like
to note that recent news stories reporting that Ambassador
Robertson had promised the U.S. would extradite Sadar are not
accurate. As the Ambassador pointed out in his meeting, the
decision whether or not to extradite an individual is the
responsibility of judicial authorities in the United States,
and these authorities are currently reviewing the Slovene
government's request."

COMMENT
--------------


9. (C) COM's meeting with Sturm began auspiciously enough
with mutual pledges to deepen the bilateral relationship and
a productive review of current bilateral issues. Sturm's
office managed to display newcomers' incompetence, though, by
leaking an inaccurate report to the press about what
transpired between COM and Sturm behind closed doors. We
hope the Embassy's press statement will put an end to any
misconceptions the press and public may have about the Sadar
case. After a warranted expression of frustration by the
Embassy, though, we look forward to taking Sturm at his word
about wishes to deepen cooperation on justice and home
affairs issues in the future.
ROBERTSON


NNNN