Between March 2000 and May 2022, approximately 62,000 procedures were initiated in Slovenia for violations of the Covid regulations in force at the time. Fines totaling more than 5.7 million euros were imposed. But now the Slovenian parliament has passed a law abolishing the penalties. Fines already paid will be refunded together with the legal costs.
All ongoing proceedings related to the Covid violations will be halted. The corresponding entries in the criminal record are automatically deleted. Social Democratic Minister of Justice Dominika Svarc Pipan emphasized that the state takes on a moral responsibility with this law. This will compensate for the injustices done to citizens “through abuse of criminal law and through unconstitutional and excessive interference with human rights,” she said during the parliamentary discussion. “May this be a lesson to all of us so that something like this never happens again.”
Many restrictions were unconstitutional
The previous government of right-wing conservative Prime Minister Janez Jansa had imposed corona restrictions during the pandemic through regulations that were subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Slovenian Constitutional Court. The Supreme Court has struck down several provisions of the Infection Protection Act and the Assembly Act on which controversial measures such as bans on gatherings, restrictions on movement and curfews were based.
The anger of many Slovenians about Jansa’s corona policy significantly contributed to his deselection in last year’s parliamentary elections. The head of government was accused of excessive and politically motivated restrictions on civil liberties, such as the ban on demonstrations, which government opponents ignored through the use of bicycles. The former governing parties argued that the regulations were introduced at the time with the legitimate aim of protecting public health and people’s lives. Jansa’s SDS also said the measures were no different from those in other democratic countries and were even looser than in some neighboring countries.
Source: Krone
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