Seven police officers fired over targeting of minister
Police Commissioner Marjan Fank confirmed Wednesday seven police officers would be fired over "serious breach of contractual obligations" for plotting to pull over Public Administration Minister Boris Koprivnikar in November last year.
Večer newspaper reports that one of the officers to be dismissed is Zoran Petrovič, the trade unionists who is believed to be the leader of the scheme. Five unionists in total and the two officers who pulled over Koprivnikar will be fired, according to media reports.
Fank said he felt sorry for the two officers who pulled over Koprivnikar, since they were "abused in a way".
The internal investigation is however not over yet, according to the police commissioner, as the possible involvement of additional officers is being probed.
The scandal erupted last week when an anonymous letter from a police officer alleged that Koprivnikar was not pulled over randomly by police in a late-night traffic stop on 29 November.
The letter, whose authenticity was later confirmed by authorities, contained screen shots of a private Facebook conversation showing several officers conspiring to target the minister in a bid to catch him drunk behind the wheel.
The case is thought to have been connected to the ongoing police strike, with Koprivnikar representing the government in the talks and Petrovič being one of the two union leaders on the police side.
On the basis of the letter, police reopened an internal probe, after an earlier probe found no misdeeds.
Meanwhile, a formal investigation has been opened by a special group of prosecutors dealing with police misconduct to check if a crime had been committed.
Prime Minister Miro Cerar last week labelled the actions of the police involved an attack on his government and, subsequently, democracy as a whole.
In response to the news that those involved are being dismissed, Cerar said that it was clear that the police involved had been found to have broken laws. This is why it is right that action has been taken against them.
"I hope this sets an example, so we won't see such behaviour again," said Cerar on the margins of a visit to the Podravje region on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Koprivnikar said the latest developments reaffirmed his trust in the police. "It appears that my trust is well-placed if they have gotten to the bottom of this case," he said.
Petrovič, who has tried to downplay his role in the Facebook correspondence and suggested the whole conversation had been a prank, told Večer that the officers involved would use all legal means to challenge the dismissals.
He has denied wrongdoing and suggested the story was an attempt to discredit the SPS trade union and weaken it in a time when the talks with the government are still ongoing.
The SPS will first tend to the needs of the two police officers who carried out the stop by providing them with legal aid and financial support, Petrovič said.
The head of the bigger of the two trade unions has meanwhile responded to the announcement of the dismissals by saying that public servants are accountable for their actions. "Time will tell if a crime had been committed," said Radivoj Uroševič, the head of the Police Trade Union (PSS).