The Supreme Court has rejected the request for the exclusion of judges Vesna Žalik and Nina Betetto in ruling for the request for protection of legality due to a statute of limitations in the Patria case. At his own proposal Supreme Court President Branko Masleša was previously recused from the case.

At the beginning of the year the defence team of Janez Janša submitted a request for the protection of legality at the Supreme Court. On the 4th of March it also submitted a request for the recusal of the two above-mentioned judges from the case.

Janša’s attorney demanded the exclusion of Žalik, a judge rapporteur in the case, because they doubted her ability to make an unbiased decision. They stated that she had been delaying the case for no need and that she did the same in the case’s first trial two years ago when she was also the judge rapporteur.

Janša and his attorney Franci Matoz are of the opinion that the Supreme Court vice-president, Nina Betetto, is also incapable of making an unbiased decision. Two years ago Betetto presided over the plenary session deciding on the recusal of the court president, and she also rejected a proposal for the recusal of Judge Žalik.

Supreme Court President Masleša should have been the one making the decision on whether there are grounds for the recusal of the judge rapporteur in the case. However, because of the official position of the Constitutional Court and the possibilities of his decision causing doubt on the court’s impartiality, Masleša previously proposed his own recusal.

G.C.; translated by K. J.