National Bureau of Investigation

Law enforcement authorities in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina conducted a series of house searches at dozens of locations on 21 March on suspicion of a money laundering racket involving shell companies that allegedly netted the suspects more than €5 million.

The Slovenian intelligence and security agency SOVA has apprehended and detained two foreign citizens who are accused of spying for Russia. They worked undercover, posing as South American businessmen, media reports say.

Ljubljana – Petra Grah Lazar, director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), has confirmed for the news portal Siol that the bureau has referred to the prosecution a criminal complaint in an abuse of office investigation into the purchases of personal protective equipment and ventilators during the early stages of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Ljubljana – The parliamentary commission investigating suspicion of political interference in the work of police interviewed Interior Ministry State Secretary Franc Kangler on Friday. Kangler denied during a four-hour session allegations about his unwarranted interfering in either the work of police or staffing decisions.

Ljubljana – Appearing in a telvised current affairs show on Sunday, Interior Minister Aleš Hojs rejected allegations about the police organisation changes being an attempt to politicise the force. Hojs sees the new law as the first step towards a more professional police that would reduce any political impact, whereas the opposition maintains the opposite.

Ljubljana – Former police commissioners Andrej Jurič in Anton Travner, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Petra Grah Lazar and her predecessor Andrej Lamberger denied political interference in the work of the police and police staffing as they were heard before a parliamentary inquiry into political interference in the police on Friday.

Ljubljana – The National Assembly is meeting for the October plenary session on Monday to debate at first reading an omnibus bill on de-bureaucratisation and a long-awaited long-term care bill. Changes to pharmacy legislation and to the law on police work and organisation are also on the MPs’ agenda.

Ljubljana – Slovenian Police Commissioner Anton Olaj has rejected allegations that the police is politicised. The situation is considerably better than one can gather from media reports, he said in an interview with the the newspaper Večer run on Saturday.

Ljubljana – The police is leading an investigation to determine whether there are elements of suspected criminal acts prosecutable ex officio based on allegations of irregularities regarding the STA. Investigators visited the STA chief supervisor based on a number of reports of these allegations and not based on a government decree, the police has said.

Ljubljana – Police Commissioner Anton Olaj, who took over in late January, told the newspaper Delo in an interview run on Saturday there were indications some police investigations had been politically motivated.

Olaj would not elaborate on details of politically motivated investigations in the police but he noted that the success of criminal procedure depended most on prosecution.