STA, 2 July 2021 - The Ljubljana Higher Court issued a ruling in the sawn-off hand case, overturning the first-instance sentences of Sebastien Abramov and Julija Adlešič, Delo and Slovenske novice have reported. According to the Higher Court, the situation regarding the cause of Adlešič's injury was not sufficiently clarified.
According to Delo, the Higher Court believes that the Ljubljana District Court violated the rights of the defence by refusing the motion for a biomechanical expert and a sawing test on a human cadaver, which affected the correctness and legality of the ruling.
The new trial will therefore have to consider this evidence, and then also decide on the motion to appoint a clinical psychology expert for Adlešič and on the motion to make inquiries at the Ribnica police station in order to assess the credibility of a testimony of one of the witnesses in the investigation.
Finally, after weighing and analysing each piece of evidence individually and in light of other evidence, the newspaper adds, the court will have to decide the case anew. The defence sought to use this evidence to prove that Adlešič was injured by accident.
In September last year, a panel of the Ljubljana District Court found the defendants guilty of the further offence of insurance fraud. The court sentenced Adlešič to two years in prison and Abramov, who had been previously convicted of fraud, to three years in prison.
The defendants were convicted of "having previously agreed that Adlešič would cut off her arm in order to receive a large compensation, they took out insurance policies with five insurance companies under which, if she had been 100% disabled as a result of severing her arm, she would have received EUR 1,166,300 in compensation".
