Murska Sobota - An inspector from the uniformed police sector and a criminal investigator at the Murska Sobota Police Department have been suspended after they came under the scrutiny of the Specialised State Prosecutor's Office because of fake Covid passes, the newspaper Večer reported on Wednesday.

The General Police Administration has confirmed for the paper that dismissal procedures have been launched against the pair, according to Večer.

An internal investigation is also underway against them at their police department in the north-east of the country.

Since their Covid passes had raised suspicion, a special department of the Specialised State Prosecutor's Office which investigates criminal offences committed by police officers started looking into the matter.

In November, house searches were conducted in a number of Slovenian cities or towns to investigate police officers alleged to have obtained fake Covid certificates.

The department confirmed that the house searches were also carried out in the Murska Sobota area, however it could not give any further detail due to the on-going investigation.

On top of the two police officials from the Murska Sobota Police Department, dismissal procedures have also been launched against four employees of the General Police Administration and police departments in Ljubljana, Kranj and Koper, according to Večer.

Under a separate investigation, the police have also found that a traffic police officer of the Maribor Police Department has been involved in issuing a fake Covid pass.

Commenting on the report, Interior Minister Aleš Hojs said that he regretted and was disappointed with something like that happening.

"The police is a system that should be an example to citizens and no one can imagine that a police officer could use or possess counterfeit documents, but this is something that apparently happens, unfortunately," he said.

The minister expects that all required procedures will be conducted, while he personally thinks that "such people must not work in the police". He said that the case had also been resolutely condemned by the police trade unions.