Ljubljana - Andrej Jurič, a former acting police commissioner, will have to pay EUR 245 for declining to answer some questions as he appeared before the parliamentary commission investigating political interference in the work of the police and police staffing in November. The fine has been proposed by the commission and confirmed by a court.

The inquiry proposed the lowest possible fine, with its chair Rudi Medved from the opposition Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) arguing it was meant to be symbolic, to show that the commission will not allow witnesses dodging their responsibility or giving accounts upon dictate of the police leadership or politics.

Jurič declined to answer the question of whom he had consulted when appointing members of a new task force for migrations.

He only told the commission he had set up the task force himself and proposed the members himself because of their competences, not to get rid of them.

Appointed to it were several senior police officials and criminal investigators, including ex-Police Commissioner Tatjana Bobnar and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) deputy director David Antolovič.

Jurič declined to answer the question even after he was told that he was obliged to do so, which prompted the commission to get him penalised.

Deciding on the fine, the Ljubljana District Court agreed with the commission that by not answering the question, Jurič obstructed its work, Medved explained on Tuesday.

He noted this was the first time that any Slovenian parliamentary inquiry commission had fined its witness.

Just recently, the commission decided to file criminal complaints against PM Janez Janša, Interior Minister Aleš Hojs and Žan Mahnič, a state secretary at the prime minister's office in charge of national security, over insulting allegations targetting the inquiry, its members and experts that cooperated with it.

Medved has said at the time that this harmed the reputation and image of the inquiry as a state body.

The commission has also decided to file a criminal complaint against Police Commissioner Anton Olaj for obstructing the inquiry and other state bodies and for mobbing at work. There is reason to suspect that he influenced a witness in the procedure, Medved has said.