SLOVENIA, CROATIA REOPEN LONG-RUNNING WIRETAPPING DISPUTE
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10.04.2019


Balkan Insight (10 April 2019)

After the country’s National Security Council met on Tuesday evening, Slovenia’s Prime Minister, Marjan Sarec, called on neighbouring Croatia to “refrain from any actions which are contrary to the values of the European Union, the rule of law and the protection of human rights and freedoms”.

Sarec spoke out after local media claimed that the Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency, SOA, had wiretapped a Slovenian judge talking to a Slovenian government agent in 2015, during the abortive border arbitration process between the two countries.

The two former Yugoslav republics had long been at odds over rights to coastal waters in the northern Adriatic. In 2017, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favour of the Slovenian claim.

But Croatia had by then withdrawn from the process, saying it had been compromised by leaks of telephone conversations in July 2015 between a Slovenian judge on the Court and Slovenia’s official representative to the Court.

In July 2015, the Croatian daily Vecernji List published audio recordings of communications between the two Slovenes – but it remained unknown who had recorded them.

On Monday, Slovenian media accused Ivan Tolj, manager of the publishing house that owns Vecernji List, of trying to suppress reports of SOA involvement in the wiretapping.

This came after Slovenia’s independent POP TV station last week claimed that the SOA had carried out the wiretapping.

On Monday, it published an audio recording in which Tolj was allegedly heard talking to an unidentified man about POP TV’s soon to-be-released report on the SOA.

“POP TV is trying to open up an old story about our intelligence agency. I was asked to call you and help in solving this issue… the [Croatian] government is asking if you can stop this; it would be useful,” Tolj allegedly said.

The Slovenian website 24ur.com on Monday said it remained unclear how Tolj could have known that POP was about to publish the story about the SOA.

“Only a few people and two reporters knew this story was going to be published. Croatia could only have known this by tracking foreign journalists,” 24ur.com said.

https://balkaninsight.com/2019/04/10/slovenia-croatia-reopen-long-running-wiretapping-dispute/




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