SLOVENIA: DAS MARK PEKALA DISCUSSES TIP WITH CHIEF

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000353

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/FO (PEKALA),EUR/NCE (TRIM),G/TIP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/06/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM SI
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: DAS MARK PEKALA DISCUSSES TIP WITH CHIEF
PROSECUTOR


Classified By: CDA Maryruth Coleman for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (SBU) Summary. During his two-day visit to Slovenia May
23-24, DAS Mark Pekala met with Slovenian Chief State
Prosecutor Barbara Brezigar. Brezigar welcomed the meeting
and was very open about the well known deficiencies of the
Slovene judicial system, including the excessive length of
court proceedings, which she has been charged to address from
the prosecutorial end. She stressed, however, that the
system would not run efficiently until deficiencies in the
judiciary were fully addressed. End Summary.


2. (SBU) In his first meeting with Chief State Prosecutor
Barbara Brezigar, DAS Pekala praised the efforts Brezigar and
her team were making to combat white collar crime and
expressed belief that our future cooperation on that front
would continue to be successful. He also raised the issue of
prosecution and conviction of human traffickers. Slovenia's
track record on this is slim, and the GOS needs to take
determined steps in this area to show some concrete success.

3.(SBU) Brezigar acknowledged the deficiencies of the Slovene
judicial system saying there was a real knowledge deficit
throughout the system, not just in the area of trafficking
but also on how to investigate, prosecute and judge many
white collar crimes. This is something she is trying hard to
address and has begun first by working on the relationship
between prosecutors and the police. Slovenia's system of
investigation is complex and relies on the prosecutor's
direction of the police in investigations. Once the
investigation is completed, the prosecutor will decide
whether or not to prosecute a case. At that point, the judge
assigned to the case will instigate his own investigation,
further delaying the decision to prosecute. This is a
frustratingly long process for any Slovene involved in cases
requiring criminal investigation. The added complication for
prosecution of TIP related cases is that most TIP victims, if
willing to participate in a prosecution initially, are
unwilling to linger in Slovenia for the months and years it
can take to bring the case to court, let alone come to
conclusion. When faced with long delays, victims tend to
choose to return home before the prosecution can get started.
Brezigar hopes that new legislation will address the
redundancy of the judicial investigation and help to shorten
the overall time it takes to bring a case to court.


4. (SBU) Brezigar agreed that the lack of prosecution and
conviction of human traffickers is a problem. While she
outlined the excellent progress made both with police
investigations and the technical knowledge necessary to
prosecute these types of cases, she re-iterated the serious
deficiencies among judges when it came to hearing the cases.
Despite changes in law enacted in May of 2004 making human
trafficking a criminal act, she claimed that this change had
not yet taken root in the collective mind of judges. There
is not a single judge in Slovenia with specific knowledge and
expertise to try these often complicated cases. Brezigar
lamented that the judges are fiercely protective of their
independence to the extent that they are overly suspicious of
any sort of training or education recommended or offered by
other parts of the government and generally will not
participate.


5. (SBU) Comment: Brezigar and her team understand that
prosecution and convictions of traffickers is the weak link
in Slovenia's otherwise effective anti-trafficking program.
This will be a difficult and delicate problem to address
primarily because of resistance of judges to training and
education on the matter. They would view training offered by
NGOs or other experts as improper attempts to influence an
independent judiciary. Peer exchanges may be one way to
approach them. Post would be interested in knowing if judges
could be identified or if programs exist through G/TIP or
other DRL offices which would help us to help Slovenia
address this crucial piece of its anti-TIP program.


6. (U) DAS Pekala cleared this cable.
COLEMAN