The Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia remedied the great injustice incurred to Mr. Kristjan Verbič with regard to the decisions of the Lower and Higher Court in Ljubljana with which he was convicted with final force for a crime that he had not committed. The ten-year long court trail has raised a lot of attention and gained considerable response from the public, since it dealt with the first and only decision regarding misuse of inside information in the country.
As reported by the Dnevnik newspaper, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia set aside the decisions of the Lower and Higher Court in Ljubljana from the summer of 2017, with which Mr. Verbič was convicted with final force to a conditional sentence of eight months of prison with a two‐year probation period for the criminal offense of misuse of inside information, allegedly committed in 2007 upon purchasing Velana d.d. shares. (VIDEO). The criminal offense in question was allegedly made by Mr. Verbič in his capacity as President of the PanSlovenian Investors' and Shareholders' Association (VZMD). For the entire period, his defense claimed that Mr. Verbič was never in possession of information which at that point would have not been already known to the public (VIDEO).
In addition, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia found that Mr. Verbič was not only incurred a violation of the basic constitutional rights during the trial, but also a violation of the basic human rights according to Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
This trial, the consequential final conviction, and the immense public response to the trial, caused great damage to Mr. Verbič in terms of his reputation and also business loss (VIDEO). None of these can be valued in a way so that the VZMD and Mr. Verbič, who had previously been a member of supervisory boards of prominent Slovenian companies and bodies of important European institutions, will have ever been compensated for their loss.
After the preceding conviction, Mr. Verbič immediately tendered resignation to the VZMD Expert Council and the VZMD Council, which rejected his resignation regardless of the considerable pressure from the media (VIDEO). In addition, Mr. Verbič had to pay into the national budget a sum of EUR 14,619.51 for the alleged unlawfully acquired capital gains. However, the sum (together with interests in the amount of EUR 1,905.56) was returned to his bank account on 7 February 2020 due to the said decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia.
In November 2017, Mr. Verbič’s defense attorneys from the Miro Senica and Attorneys Law Firm and Kunič Law Firm have submitted before the Supreme Court an appeal on a point of law against the decisions of the Lower and Higher Courts in Ljubljana (Appeal Kunič and Appeal Senica).
In its decision, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia entirely agreed with the arguments from the appeal on a point of law, particularly with the view of the defense attorneys from the Miro Senica and Attorneys Law Firm, which argued that the Lower and Higher Court have not adjudicated on the question whether or not Mr. Verbič was in possession of information that had the character of inside information at the time of purchasing Velana d.d. shares. To cap it all off, the Lower and Higher Court have left the decision on such an important legal issue to another expert from the field of economics, despite the fact that according to the law, the experts are not allowed to provide expert opinions on legal issues. In fact, when the use of law is in question, the court has to know law of its own motion. At the same time, the courts failed to take into account the opinion of the first expert appointed by the Lower Court, which would completely discharge Mr. Verbič (VIDEO).
In addition, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia agreed with the defense that during the appeal procedure Mr. Verbič suffered an infringement of constitutional legal guarantees, especially his right to trial in presence, equal protection of rights, and right to legal remedies. The Higher Court has not even invited Mr. Verbič to attend the appeal session at which the Court on its own carried out a valuation of the evidence that was previously completely disregarded by the Lower Court at the main hearing and in its decision.
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