By Nathan Goldman

A Ljubljana District Court judge has approved the indictment of Anuška Delić, an OCCRP partner and journalist for the Slovenian newspaper Delo, for allegedly publishing classified information.

Delić published several stories during the 2011 parliamentary election campaign revealing connections between members of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and the neo-Nazi group “Blood and Honour.” SDS came in second place in the election, with its leader Janez Janša elected Prime Minister of a coalition government; Janša later lost his position as prime minister in an unrelated corruption case, and is currently serving a two-year prison sentence.

The information from Delić’s stories corroborates evidence unearthed by the Slovene Intelligence and Security Agency (SOVA) in its investigations of Blood and Honour, according to the indictment, which does not identify any source of the alleged SOVA leak.

Former SOVA director Sebastjan Selan was also indicted for not filing charges against Delić.

Prosecutors first filed the indictment with the court in April 2013, but despite a requirement that the judge approve or dismiss the case within a month, nothing happened for more than a year. During this period, Delić was unable to appeal the indictment. The indictment eventually passed to a different judge, who allowed the case to proceed.

Under the second paragraph of article 260 of the Slovenian Criminal Code, Delić could face up to three years in prison if found guilty. The case will begin with a preliminary hearing on Oct. 15.

“Aside from the case itself, what is most disturbing to me about the indictment is that people at the highest levels of the government knew about this more than a year before I published my story,” Delić said. According to the indictment, top Slovenian officials, including the country’s president and prime minister, were briefed on the findings of SOVA’s investigation of Blood and Honour as early as April 2010.

The indictment also reveals that investigators attempted to obtain a warrant to scrutinize Delić’s past phone calls and text messages, but were denied.

Delić’s indictment is just the latest action in a disturbing series of attacks on journalists including a number of OCCRP’s partners. Drew Sullivan, OCCRP editor, said of her case, “Media freedom in Slovenia is fast disappearing and this is another egregious example. Prosecutors need to stop attacking journalists and work harder to end corruption.”

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