US embassy cable - 04LJUBLJANA1111

C O N F I D E N T I A L  LJUBLJANA 001111 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/NCE AND L/LEI (K. PROPP) 
USDOJ FOR OIA (D. GAYNUS) 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2014 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PINR, SI 
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: COM MEETS NEW JUSTICE MINISTER LOVRO 
STURM 
 
 
Classified By: Chief of Mission Thomas B. Robertson for reasons 1.4(b) 
and (d). 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  On 13 December, COM called on newly 
confirmed Justice Minister Lovro Sturm and raised 
denationalization of AmCit-held property, court backlogs, the 
pending Slovenian request for the return of alleged financial 
criminal Davorin Sadar, and the need to negotiate a mutual 
legal assistance (MLA) protocol under the overarching U.S.-EU 
agreement.  Telling COM he wanted to "deepen ties" between 
the two countries, Sturm mentioned the possibility of 
improving relations between U.S. and Slovenian young lawyers, 
and he made a plug for inviting prominent guests from the 
U.S. to speak in Slovenia.  COM was accompanied by DCM, 
Conoff and Pol-Miloff.  Sturm was joined by State Secretary 
Robert Marolt, Chief of Staff Janko Koren, and staffer Blaz 
Ivanc.  Hours after the meeting, Slovenian press outlets 
reported that COM had "promised" Sturm that the U.S. would 
extradite Sadar.  Embassy issued a press release on 14 
December clarifying the inaccurate report.  END SUMMARY 
 
JUDICIAL REFORM AND BILATERAL EXCHANGES 
--------------------------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU) After Sturm opened the meeting by expressing his 
wish to "deepen ties" between the U.S. and Slovenia, COM 
agreed that efforts should be made to deepen and improve the 
good bilateral relationship that already exists.  COM 
highlighted a series of recent and upcoming exchanges focused 
on legal and judicial reform, and he asked Sturm to suggest 
specific areas for future cooperation.  Sturm said he would 
like to see improved education and research opportunities in 
the U.S. for young Slovenian lawyers.  He also encouraged the 
possibility of inviting prominent U.S. guests to give 
lectures in Slovenia, mentioning former Education Secretary 
William Bennett and columnist Thomas Sowell by name. 
 
DENATIONALIZATION 
----------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) Despite an impressive record in Slovenia on 
resolving denationalization cases, COM told Sturm the process 
seemed to work more slowly for AmCits and asked if procedures 
might somehow be streamlined.  Sturm said he was quite 
familiar with the issue from his days as a Constitutional 
Court judge and pointed to the Constitutional Court's 
decision to give priority to denationalization cases.  He 
assured COM that AmCits are not being discriminated against 
and attributed delays to the difficult nature of certain 
cases.  DCM highlighted the specific case of a city-run 
kindergarten adjacent to the Embassy as one such difficult 
AmCit case, where political equities may have contributed to 
delays. 
 
COURT BACKLOGS 
-------------- 
 
4.  (SBU) COM expressed concern about the Slovenian court 
system's considerable backlog issue, highlighting the 
negative implications for foreign direct investment when 
businessmen cannot rely on swift justice to settle commercial 
disputes.  Sturm said improving backlogs is "one of the 
greatest tasks of the Ministry" but that the problem would 
not be easy to solve.  Nonetheless, he said the MoJ will look 
at ways to optimize court procedures and improve legislation 
to deal with the problem.  He asked for help from U.S. 
experts, noting that one-third of backlog problems stem from 
delayed execution of judgments.  COM suggested inviting D.C. 
Superior Court Judge Nan Shuker to continue her work with the 
Slovenian judiciary in this area. 
 
EXTRADITION AND DAVORIN SADAR 
----------------------------- 
 
5.  (C) COM told Sturm that progress was being made on 
Slovenia's request for the provisional arrest and return of 
Slovenian citizen Davorin Sadar, who had been accused in 
Slovenia of financial crimes.  COM said it appeared Sadar 
would be deported rather than being extradited.  Sturm said 
he had heard about the deportation solution and agreed that 
it would be simpler.  Conoff stressed that U.S. law forbids 
speaking to the press about specific deportation and/or 
extradition cases.  Conoff told Sturm that Sadar would be 
 
 
escorted back to Slovenia by a DHS officer if he loses in his 
deportation hearing appeal.  When pressed by Sturm for the 
timing of Sadar's deportation, Conoff said he did not know 
but guessed by the end of January 2005. 
 
6.  (U) More generally on the topic of extradition, COM told 
Sturm the U.S. looked forward to starting negotiations soon 
with MoJ on a bilateral protocol to the 2003 U.S.-EU 
Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement.  He 
explained that protocols will be negotiated with each EU 
member state under the overarching U.S.-EU Agreement. 
 
THE SADAR CASE AND THE SLOVENIAN PRESS 
-------------------------------------- 
 
7.  (C) Hours after the meeting, Slovenian press outlets 
reported that COM "assured Justice Minister Lovro Sturm in 
Monday's talks that the U.S. would extradite Davorin Sadar." 
Embassy issued a press statement on 14 December to clarify 
the record, and Embassy protocol officer spoke with Koren to 
ask if any of the participants in the meeting had spoken to 
the press and tell them that - if so - the information they 
released was inaccurate and could hamper proceedings over 
Sadar.  Koren was very apologetic and attributed the "error" 
to the inexperience of the new Minister's team. 
 
8.  (U) The text of the Embassy press statement is as follows: 
 
"In a meeting December 13 with Justice Minister Dr. Lovro 
Sturm, U.S. Ambassador Thomas B. Robertson discussed the 
Embassy's ongoing cooperative legal efforts in the case of 
Davorin Sadar, a Slovene citizen.  The Slovene government has 
announced it is requesting that U.S. authorities return Sadar 
to Slovenia.  While the Embassy is unable to fully discuss 
the details of this case due to privacy laws, we would like 
to note that recent news stories reporting that Ambassador 
Robertson had promised the U.S. would extradite Sadar are not 
accurate.  As the Ambassador pointed out in his meeting, the 
decision whether or not to extradite an individual is the 
responsibility of judicial authorities in the United States, 
and these authorities are currently reviewing the Slovene 
government's request." 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
9.  (C) COM's meeting with Sturm began auspiciously enough 
with mutual pledges to deepen the bilateral relationship and 
a productive review of current bilateral issues.  Sturm's 
office managed to display newcomers' incompetence, though, by 
leaking an inaccurate report to the press about what 
transpired between COM and Sturm behind closed doors.  We 
hope the Embassy's press statement will put an end to any 
misconceptions the press and public may have about the Sadar 
case.  After a warranted expression of frustration by the 
Embassy, though, we look forward to taking Sturm at his word 
about wishes to deepen cooperation on justice and home 
affairs issues in the future. 
ROBERTSON 
 
 
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