Death threats to investigators are very real – the Slovenian case
The threats and intimidations to the investigative journalists and other investigators are multiplying while the world is still under the strong influence of the horrible events in Malta, where an investigative journalist was brutally assassinated for her brave work on several world-scale scandals. These are dark times for democracy when investigators are being silenced by murder.
The sad truth is that everyone was aware of the threats made to Daphne Caruana Galizia. The fact that this heinous crime could have been prevented is even harder to swallow. Mrs. Caruana Galizia was known internationally for her hard stance against corruption and organized crime, and that is precisely why she was a target of those who didn’t like where her investigations were going.
Very recently, the biggest Slovenian money-laundering scandal was discovered by coincidence, during the work of the parliamentary inquiry commission. It was revealed, that between 2008 and 2010, the biggest Slovenian bank, NLB laundered 1bn EUR for the Iranian regime. The crime of such proportions was carried out with the knowledge of then political and institutional leadership. According to the findings of the EU member states’ institutions and the US institutions, a lot of the laundered money was also used to finance terrorism. This scandal is so extensive, that the European Parliament PANA committee is organizing a public hearing on the Slovenian money-laundering scandal on 22nd of October.
Recently, a radical leftist publicly threatened dr. Anže Logar, the president of the Parliamentary Commission, responsible for all the shocking findings about the Slovenian money-laundering scheme. Dr. Logar and his parents received death threats from Mr. Crnkovič because of the important investigative work dr. Logar is doing in the Slovenian Parliament. He was threatened precisely because of his investigative work. Mr. Crnkovič, a member of the Slovenian S&D party, published the following tweet: “Will mother and father of Anže Logar kill themselves or will they need to be killed for conceiving and giving birth to such a perverse creature?” Such bullying and more importantly violence imposed on investigators and journalists have to stop.
These threats are becoming more frequent by the year. A couple of years ago, a member of the Slovenian Police force publicly threatened then Prime Minister Janez Janša, with death. The police officer, who was at the time an assistant to the commander of the police station, is still employed by the Slovenian Police.
Slovenian Democratic Party calls on all competent authorities to thoroughly investigate death threats to Dr. Logar and prevents another European disaster.