Police filed genocide charges against a former high ranking Slovenian communist official who is suspected of playing a role in the summary killings of alleged Nazi collaborators at the end of the Second World War.
The charges against Mitja Ribicic are the first filed by the police in relation to the reprisal killings of the Yugoslav Communist regime against people who were thought to have worked with occupying forces during WWII. Ribicic had been the deputy security chief for Slovenia in the OZNA security and intelligence agency of the then Yugoslavia. He also held numerous other high posts in the former Yugoslavia in the years after. Pavel Jamnik, the head of the team investigating summary killings of alleged Nazi collaborators by the communist security forces, explained that the charges were brought against Ribicic after the discovery of a list of detainees in the Slovenian Archives, a document that he says proves a link between Ribicic and the victims of executions. Jamnik added that the document corroborates statements made several years ago by a former high-ranking officer of Yugoslav security forces Albert Svetina, who claimed that Ribicic put together lists of people who were to be executed. Meanwhile, the lawyer for Ribicic said on Wednesday, 25 May that his client found out about the genocide charges against him from the media and will not comment on them until he is called to testify by an investigating magistrate. Peter Ceferin also pointed out that all previous charges against Ribicic had been dropped because it was clear that Ribicic had not committed any such crime. The charge carries a sentence of between 10 and 30 years.
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