Ljubljana mayor gets his day in court
Ljubljana, 17 December - Six years after police officers first raided Ljubljana Town Hall in search of evidence of corruption, the first of several cases open against Mayor Zoran Janković eventually made it to court in late November but failed to move past the pre-trial hearing.
Ljubljana
Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković coming from the court.
Photo: Anže Malovrh/STA
File photo
The case concerns half a million euro which the mayor demanded as a donation from the construction company Gratel in March 2007 to allow it to dig roads to install optic cables. Janković pleaded not-guilty to the bribery charge, claiming the donation, which went for renovation of Ljubljana Castle, was compensation for the damage incurred by the city because Gratel had dug up wider conduits and installed more cables than agreed.
However, his counsel indicated a similar line of defence to the one that had already got Janković off the hook before, as he demanded for suppression of what he alleges is illegal evidence.
Janković, who won his fourth term as Ljubljana mayor in a landslide in November, is facing trial in another, much bigger case, involving the Stožice sports complex, the flagship project of his first term. The mayor, along with eight other defendants, including former Defence Minister Roman Jakić, stands accused of being involved in scheme that allowed the city to obtain EUR 9.4m subsidy from the EU and the state through deception.
The pre-trial arraignment in the case was due in December, but was put off because the lawyer of one of the defendants asked for the judge to be replaced.