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Lawyer Franci Matoz and Janša are challenging the two-year prison sentence, pronounced by the Ljubljana Local Court in June 2013 and upheld by the Higher Court on 28 April this year.

Janša was found guilty of accepting the promise of a bribe as part of a EUR 278m arms deal with Finnish contractor Patria in 2006 when he was prime minister.

The convictions of co-defendants Tone Krkovič, a retired army officer, and Ivan Črnkovič, the boss of the Slovenian partner of Patria, were also upheld in April. They were given 22-month prison terms.

Janša, who said he would go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary, has been describing the verdict as political, arguing that the prosecution had failed to produce a single piece of evidence against him.

It is not yet clear when Janša is to start serving his prison sentence, since this also depends on when he can be officially served the verdict.

While the court says it has given the verdict for Janša to Matoz upon the latter's instructions, Matoz told the STA that verdicts are not served through legal representatives.

Senior SDS member Milan Zver recently expressed the expectation that the Constitutional Court would stay the implementation of the sentence.