On Friday, November 22nd 2024, a coalition of eight Slovenian non-profit NGOs and the Slovenian movement for the rights of Palestinians filed an indictment against eight Israeli politicians and army commanders with the Slovenian Public Prosecutor’s Office. The indictment is the direct result of Slovenian civil society’s disappointment with the Slovenian government’s inaction in the face of the ongoing genocide and displacement of Palestinian people.
The coalition is comprised of NGO’s that regularly collaborate when there are pressing issues in Slovenian society that need to be addressed, for example the defense of the right to clean water in the Slovenian constitution when it is being threatened by corporate interests, the defense of abortion rights when right wing parties want to remove it from the Slovenian constitution, and so on. Some of the organizations have, in the previous years, also collaborated on actions and events in solidarity with Palestine, such as organising lectures, book presentations, exhibitions, and demonstrations.

In November 2024, after 13 months of the genocide that Israel is committing against Palestinians, some of the organisations have decided that it is time to take legal action against Israeli politicians and army leaders. Since the only thing that the Slovenian government has done in support of Palestine is to recognize it as a state in June 2024, the coalition feels that by filing an indictment, it can put pressure on the government to exercise more pressure against Israel.
With the help of a pro bono lawyer, they prepared an indictment in which they call for the prosecution for the criminal offences in connection with the reasonable suspicion of having committed crimes against humanity under Chapter 14 of the Criminal of the Code of the Republic of Slovenia (KZ-1/ CC-1):
– Article 100: Genocide
– Article 101: Crimes against humanity
– Article 102: War Crimes
The indictment was filed against (the functions named are those that the persons were holding by the time the indictment was filed): Benjamin Netanjahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Yoav Gallant, Israeli Minister of Defence, Benjamin “Benny” Gantz, Minister in the Israeli Government without Portfolio, Ron Dermer, Minister of Strategic Affairs in the Government of Israel, Gadi Eisenkot, Minister without Portfolio in the Israeli Government, Aryeh Makhlouf Deri, Minister without Portfolio in the Israeli Government, Herzl “Herzi” Halevi, Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Armed Forces and Aluf Tamir Yadai, Commander of the Ground Forces of the Israeli Armed Forces.
The indictment states that the suspects committed these crimes from 7 October 2023 on, as senior officials of the State of Israel under whose command the armed forces have conducted military operations under the single name of Operation Steel Sword against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip, whereby by November 2024:
- More than 43,000 Palestinians were killed, out of more than two million living in the Gaza Strip before the start of military operations. This represents more than 2% of the population. Of this number, according to the latest United Nations reports, 70 percent are children and women. More than 100,000 people have been injured in the military attacks and it is estimated that more than 10,000 are missing under the rubble. By indiscriminately bombing a densely populated area (so-called “carpet bombing”), the Israeli army has indiscriminately killed or seriously injured part of the Palestinian people, which, according to international standards and Article 100 of the Criminal Code-1, meets the legal qualification of the crime of genocide;
- The deliberate creation of such living conditions for the Palestinian people, inter alia, by preventing access to food and medicine and by deliberately destroying the water supply infrastructure and the health care system, which further contributed to the partial destruction of the population of the Gaza Strip. This constitutes a crime against humanity under international law and Article 101 of the Criminal Code;
- The following war crimes have been continuously committed:
– deliberate attacks against civilians not directly participating in hostilities, including deliberate attacks against children;
– deliberate attacks against civilian objects, i.e. objects which are not military targets;
– attacks and bombing of undefended towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are not military objectives; and
– attacks against United Nations and other humanitarian personnel,
whereby the suspects knew, or by virtue of their position should have known, that these offences were being committed, and even in some cases openly encouraged them to do so.
Article 13 (paragraph 3) of the Criminal Code (CC-1) allows the Republic of Slovenia to prosecute anyone who commits an offence abroad which, under an international treaty or under general principles of law recognised by the international community, is prosecutable in all countries, regardless of where it is committed. The Commentary to the CC-1 clearly confirms the view that there is a consensus in the international community that these are the crimes of which the applicants allege that the suspects are guilty – genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In the Republic of Slovenia, the principle of the universal applicability of the Criminal Code (in the substantive sense) and universal jurisdiction (in the procedural sense) applies. As a result, anyone can be investigated and prosecuted in the Republic of Slovenia, including nationals of a foreign state, who has committed any of the following crimes against a national of a foreign state abroad – genocide (Art. 100), war crimes (Art. 101), and crimes against humanity (Art. 102).
However, pursuant to Article 14 (paragraph 7) of the Criminal Code, perpetrators who have committed the above-mentioned criminal offences against citizens of a foreign country abroad may be prosecuted in the Republic of Slovenia only with the permission of the Minister of Justice.
The applicants are aware that the Prosecutor’s Office must request the Minister of Justice to grant permission for prosecution. However, in the view of the applicants, a direct request to the Minister of Justice will lead to transparency in the Minister’s decision-making. The Republic of Slovenia and its officials are obliged under Slovenian law and international law to ensure the prosecution and punishment of the most serious international crimes. The Prosecutor’s Office is obliged to prosecute those responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, in accordance with Slovenian criminal law and the Republic of Slovenia’s international legal obligations. Slovenia is one of the countries with universal jurisdiction that can try those accused of these crimes even in absentia. It should also be pointed out that the Republic of Slovenia is currently a member of the Security Council and, by virtue of its function, is obliged to serve as a role model in the international community by concretely prosecuting those responsible for the genocide in Gaza. The Public Prosecutor’s Office is Slovenia’s representative in this regard and is also obliged to initiate criminal prosecutions against those accused.
The wider Slovenian civil society has in the last 15 months held demonstrations, press conferences, public discussions and faculty sit-ins to remind the Slovenian government of its obligations to international law in regards of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. In the last month, it has also been revealed that the Slovenian government still buys weapons from Israel, despite claiming it had stopped in October 2023. These revelations have caused a great uproar among civil society and in most centre and left-wing media.
By January 2025, the Specialised State Prosecutor’s Office informed the coalition that it has started pretrial procedures. The Ministry of Justice has not yet replied about whether they have granted permission for the prosecution and has not yet answered the follow up question about if they intend to do so. The coalition has therefore filed an administrative complaint for silence on the part of an authority.
The legal action of the Slovenian NGO’s against Israel is one of many around the world that is currently taking place and whose goal is to punish those responsible for the genocide and displacement of the Palestinian people.
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