• Boris Šuštar retrial begins
• Anti-corruption measures evaluated
• Roma want parliamentary representation
• Journalists say efforts to control media in country still present
• Slovene film retrospective in New York

• 23^rd anniversary of Tito’s death
• Ivan Rozman confirmed as University of Maribor rector
• Czech translation of Slovene books debut in Prague

Boris Šuštar retrial begins

On 7 May, the Ljubljana regional court begain the retrial of former State Secretary at the Ministry of the Economy Boris Šuštar, who is facing two charges of criminal acceptance of a bribe. Three others are also facing charges in connection with the case: Stanislav Droljc, Boštjan Šoba and Šuštar’s wive Rozana. All four are pleading innocent.

Šuštar was convicted to three years in prison and ordered to pay a fine in spring 2001. In May 2002, Šuštar’s appeal came before the Ljubljana High Court. Both the defense and prosecuting attorneys called for the regional court’s verdict to be canceled, which the high court did in June, citing irregularities in the legal process.

The Šuštar affair begain in 2000 and is the country’s first major corruption scandal. Šuštar maintains that his arrest and conviction were politically motivated. He believes that after he fell out of favor with his party, the LDS, he was sacrificed to higher interests: the need to prosecute a high-profile corruption case to prove the government’s commitment to fighting corruption. Helsinki Monitor agreed that the Šuštar case was exploited to demonstrate to the EU that Slovenia is serious about tackling corruption. Šuštar maintains that bribery between corporations and the government is common, even among some prominent politicians.

The Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) presented a report on corruption in Slovenia to the Council of Europe this week. The report is a follow-up to the December 2000 GRECO report which evaluated corruption in Slovenia. This time, the organization investigated Slovenia’s compliance with the first report’s recommendations.

The original report made twelve recommendations intended to lessen the opportunities for corruption in Slovenia, increase the chances of exposing it and to introduce higher penalties for it. The current compliance report deems that nine of the recommendations from the evaluation report have been fulfilled, leaving just three to go.

Among the country’s achievements in the fight against corruption, the compliance report points to the March 2001 establishment of the government’s Coordination Group for the Prevention of Corruption, and the July 2001 creation of the Office for the Prevention of Corruption. Much legislation has been adopted or amended with more to come, and judges and prosecutors have undertaken extensive training for fighting corruption as well.

The remaining three recommendations seek the enforcement of the Act on the Incompatibility of Performing Public Functions with Profitable Activities; the introduction of mandatory reporting on financial status for prosecutors and judges; and the removal of immunity from judges.

Drago Kos, a State Sub-Secretary at the Office for the Prevention of Corruption and head of GRECO, expects that the three recommendations will be enacted before the end of the year.

He told Delo on Saturday that "we are happy that the report for the Republic of Slovenia is so positive, particularly because our country was the first which GRECO evaluated two years ago, and the first for which they checked the execution of the country’s reporting. And with positive reactions from all sides to the efforts of GRECO, Slovenia is also becoming a model for the way other states work in this increasingly important international organization."

The Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) is an initiative of the Council of Europe. It was established in 1999 and includes 35 member states.

Roma want parliamentary representation

ZRS leader Horvat Muc said that the organization is advocating the introduction of a Roma representative in the National Assembly. Both the Italian and Hungarian communities have such represenation.

In the 2002 local elections, Roma representatives were elected to nineteen city councils. However, the Constitutional Court also mandated the town of Grosuplje to elect one, but so far it continues to refuse. Murska Sobota, on the other hand, elected a Roma city councilman even beyond its court-mandated Roma representative. Forum representatives expect a Roma representative to be elected to the city council of Škocjan, as well, even though it was not mandated by the court.

Journalists say efforts to control media in country still present

Wednesday marked the start of a five-day retrospective of recent Slovene films in New York. The festival, organized by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Slovene Film Fund, runs through 11 May.

So far this year, the Film Fund has also organized retrospectives in Berlin, Graz and Barcelona, and retrospectives in Rome and Stockholm are also planned. Last year, retrospectives were organized in Budapest, Madrid and Vienna. This is the first major presentation of Slovene cinema in New York.

• On 5 May, the Senate of the University of Maribor confirmed that Ivan Rozman will be the university’s rector for the next four years. Rozman is the university’s deacon of the faculty for electrotechnology, computer science and information science. He became the university’s sixth rector, replacing Ludvik Tolpak.