SLOVENIA: NEW GENERAL PROSECUTOR LOOKING AT WHITE

UNCLAS LJUBLJANA 000483

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR EUR/NCE, INL/C/CJ, EUR/PPD, ECA/A/E/ERU,
ECA/PE/C/EUR, IIP/G/EUR
BUDAPEST FOR ILEA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV SOCI PINR KPAO SI
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: NEW GENERAL PROSECUTOR LOOKING AT WHITE
COLLAR CRIME AND SEEKING USG ASSISTANCE



1. (SBU) Summary. COM met July 7 with Barbara Brezigar,
recently appointed General State Prosecutor for Slovenia.
Brezigar, just back from Eurojust in Brussels is focused on
combating white-collar crime and is interested in cooperating
with the USG to build prosecutorial capacity in Slovenia.
Brezigar enjoys a reputation as a tough prosecutor and honest
broker. She ran for President in 2002 and lost to current
President Janez Drnovsek in a closely contested run-off
ballot. She is considered one of PM Jansa's best
appointments to date. Brezigar's decision to focus on
white-collar and financial crime may bring to a close an era
of insider dealing and trading that has existed since
Slovenia's independence. Her greatest challenge will be to
get the legal, financial and economic training and experience
necessary for the prosecutors to do their jobs effectively.
End Summary.


2. (SBU) COM accompanied by DCM, Pol/Econ Chief and PAO,
called on Brezigar and her Deputy, Mirko Vrtacnik, and Silvi
Sinkovic, director for training, July 7. After Jansa's win
in October 2004 and the political changes that swept through
the GoS, it was widely expected that Brezigar would return
from Eurojust, where she has been Slovenia's representative
for just under one year. Prior to her appointment to
Eurojust, Brezigar had been a Supreme State Prosecutor for
two years, and also had a brief stint as Minister of Justice
in 2000 during the government of current Finance Minister
Andrej Bajuk. Her appointment as Slovenia's top national
prosecutor, a six year appointment, is a bold move by Jansa,
and Brezigar's decision to focus on white-collar and
financial crime may bring to a close an era of insider
dealing and trading that has benefited only an elite slice of
society since Slovenia's independence.


3. (SBU) In her discussion with COM, Brezigar describe a
serious lack of knowledge and capacity for prosecuting
white-collar crime saying that her prosecutors do not know
what to look for, let alone how to guide the police in its
investigations. Despite some differences in criminal justice
systems, Brezigar is very eager to draw on US expertise,
particularly in the case-study format and asked COM for ideas
on how to make this happen.


4. (SBU) Comment. Post is eager to assist Brezigar in
building prosecutorial capacity in Slovenia and is exploring
various options. We hope to draw on the resources and
expertise of ECA, INL, DoJ and ILEA Budapest. The Office of
the Prosecutor employs 170 prosecutors and 40 support staff.
Training would be directed at a subset of this group that
specializes in economic crime. The core group would share
its knowledge more widely amongst prosecutorial colleagues to
increase the impact of training. The overall package we
envision would build links with U.S. counterparts and provide
training for prosecutors. By September, we would like to
have established contact between the higher levels of
Brezigar,s office and their U.S. counterparts, possibly
through a Digital Video Conference. Following this, we
propose sending one or more senior prosecutors on a Voluntary
Visitor program that would include meetings both with
practitioners and with academicians. Meetings with
academicians are particularly important for their analysis of
well-known economic crime case studies, such as insider
trading and other US corruption cases e.g., Enron, Tyco, etc.
Longer term linkages would also be part of our strategy of
assistance. As ECA prepares themes for upcoming Citizen
Exchange linkages, we request that economic crime and
corruption be included for Slovenia, either alone or as part
of a regional proposal. We will submit specific proposals
for each program in separate messages. End Comment.
ROBERTSON


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2005LJUBLJ00483 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED



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