Slovenian court voids Nazi collaborator’s treason conviction
Legal body nullified the 1946 conviction of Leon Rupnik last week with the Jewish community saying it is 'shocked and deeply concerned' by the decision
A court in Slovenia voided the treason conviction of a Nazi collaborator who was executed in Yugoslavia shortly after World War II.
The Supreme Court of Slovenia nullified the 1946 conviction of Leon Rupnik last week, the director of the Jewish Cultural Center of the capital Ljubljana wrote in a statement. The court ordered a retrial for Rupnik, the Nazis’ puppet ruler for Slovenia.
“We were shocked and deeply concerned to learn about the decision,” the JCC’s director, Robert Waltl, wrote.
The court ruled that Rupnik’s trial by the judiciary under Yugoslavia’s communist rulers was unjust.
Rupnik has inveighed often against Jews, calling on listeners to “do battle with them.”
Rupnik’s police under the leadership of Lovro Hacin, likewise sentenced and executed in 1946 as a war criminal, organised the arrests and deportations of the remaining Slovenian Jews in Ljubljana and its vicinity in the years 1943 and 1944, according to the local Jewish community.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center protested the nullification in a letter sent Tuesday to the country’s ambassador to Israel.
“This shameful decision constitutes a shocking distortion of the history of the Holocaust and a horrific insult to Rupnik’s many victims and their families,” the center’s Eastern Europe director, Efraim Zuroff, wrote Ambassador Andreja Purkart Martinez.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
