The announcement on the International Day of Media Freedom, May 3, came true. The court of another state, the court in Maribor, initiated proceedings against a Bosnian journalist, the editor of the Istraga.ba portal, Avdo Avdic who is suspected of a 'crime'.
It was on May 3 that the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Jansa, retweeted a tweet from journalist Luka Pers announcing this process.
“It sounds completely unbelievable that the Court in Maribor decided it was competent to conduct this ‘criminal’ case because of the texts published in the Sarajevo media. The documents submitted to me state that some judges of that same court believed that the Court in Maribor should not have the jurisdiction. As can be seen from the documentation, the ‘criminal procedure’ was initiated on the basis of a defamation lawsuit filed by Rok Snezic, a Slovenian businessman who has already been convicted of money laundering,” Avdic told N1.
Snezic threatened me three years ago via “SMS messages,” calling me a “little Muslim”, but that is not so much problematic as the fact that the Court decided to initiate proceedings against me based on his lawsuit. What is even more interesting, the initiation of this procedure was announced by the Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa. As far as I am concerned, I will respond to the Slovenian judiciary. The problem here, however, is that Snezic cannot respond to the BiH judiciary because he was banned from entering the country,” Avdic explained.
N1 television received the confirmation that the BiH Journalists Association will act promptly in the case of the proceedings of the Court in Maribor against the BiH journalist.
“The BiH journalists and the Helpline for Journalists have already reacted to the political pressure exerted by the Prime Minister of Slovenia Janez Jansa on journalist Avdo Avdic. We will continue to provide support to our colleague Avdic in the Court in Maribor through the system of free legal aid and by hiring a lawyer who will represent Avdic. Now the most important thing is to choose a good lawyer and respond to the lawsuit within the legal deadline. The case is very serious, since these are accusations of defamation, which are treated as a criminal offence in the Slovenian judiciary, and both colleague Avdic and his lawyer must prepare very good.” Borka Rudic, the secretary-general of the BH Journalists Association, told N1.
“We will also inform international organizations about this case, and invite them to be observers of the Court proceedings. Because the practice of intimidating and prosecuting journalists for their investigative texts is contrary to European standards for the protection of freedom of expression, that is why together with our colleague Avdic and his lawyer, we must find legal means to fight the system and accusations behind the policy and power of the Slovenian Prime Minister Jansa and individuals associated with them,” she added.
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