STA, 18 December - The retrial in the case of the murder of Chemistry Institute director Janko Jamnik got under way as the Ljubljana District Court heard on Tuesday the testimonies by relatives of Jamnik and his alleged killer Milko Novič, a former employee of the institute.
Jamnik was gunned down in December 2014 and died three days later. Novič was soon arrested as the main suspect and sentenced to 25 years in prison last year.
The conviction, largely based on circumstantial evidence, was upheld by the Ljubljana Higher Court last December, but the Supreme Court found this year that Novič's right to defence had been violated, suspended Novič's prison sentence and ordered a retrial.
Related: Murder Mystery at the Institute of Chemistry
Novič, who spent nearly four years in detention, will now attend the court dates from his home.
Today, the panel of judges presided over by judge Zvezdan Radonjič heard the testimonies by Jamnik's wife and parents and by Novič's daughter and wife.
The witnesses mostly repeated their testimonies from the first trial, recounting Jamnik's last days and Novič's whereabouts on the night of the shooting. The testimony of Novič's wife was closed to the public.
Related: Chemistry Institute Murder Saga Continues
The panel of judges will hear forensic experts Franc Sablič, whom the defence wanted the court to exclude from the trial but failed, and Ester Ceket, as well as Miran Čeh of the Jožef Stefan Institute and a witness for the defence, Croatian ballistics and forensic expert Vojin Maštruk.
In the continuation of the retrial, the court will try to obtain location data for Novič's phone on the night of the murder from Google. Further hearings are scheduled for January and February.
