STA, 16 April 2021 - The head of the supervisory board of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), Mladen Terčelj, has confirmed for the STA he was visited by investigators of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Thursday. He said he had not yet talked to the investigators and stressed he had great confidence in the rule of law and the NBI.
The police told the newspaper Dnevnik the NBI was leading a pretrial procedure based on a reported criminal offence but would not reveal any more detail because of ongoing procedure.
The General Police Administration confirmed for the paper that the investigation was thus not based merely on a government decree adopted in March.
Last month, the government proposed the supervisory board to dismiss STA director Bojan Veselinovič and tasked the Interior Ministry to examine whether the alleged violations contained elements of suspected criminal acts prosecutable ex officio and to act accordingly.
The government also called on the labour inspectorate to examine the agency and review its operations. A few days later inspectors paid a visit to the STA.
Veselinovič told the government on Monday he was granting the government access to all books of account and documents, even though the STA had never received a formal request to that effect. He said the government should say, in writing, who would access the documents on its behalf and in what way.
He noted that on Saturday 100 days had passed since the STA got paid for its public services in 2021.
