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The
political and legal crisis in Slovenia has escalated further. The opposition
leader was taken to prison on June 20 amid public protests and harsh critique
waged by the most prominent Slovenian constitutional lawyers. The crisis is due
to have huge impact on the fairness of the election, scheduled for July
13. However, this does not seem to be of
concern to the highest Slovenian courts.
On
Monday June 16 the Constitutional Court rejected the petitioner’s
constitutional complaint as premature, for failing to fulfill extraordinary
legal remedies at the Supreme Court. The Court refused to apply Art 51 of the Constitutional
Court Act, which exceptionally allows for a constitutional complaint prior to
the exhaustion of all legal remedies if the alleged violation of human rights
is manifest and if the petitioner is to suffer unrepairable consequences.
The
Court ruled 6:3 that while the alleged violations of the petitioner’s rights
were serious, they were not manifest, within the meaning of the Court’s
judicial test, so to allow a direct review. This was opposed by three judges,
writing for the minority, who have produced extremely critical dissenting
opinions, unprecedented in the history of the Court, stressing that the
violations of human rights were not only manifest, but were patent and flagrant
and were violated in a trial that was manifestly unfair.