Show Trials in Slovenia: The Case of Ljubo Sirc
Show Trials in Slovenia: The Case of Ljubo Sirc

Summary/Abstract: Ljubo Sirc was a member of the Stara pravda group. In 1943, he fled to Switzerland in order to explain the situation in Slovenia to the Yugoslav government and the British Allies, but they would not listen to him. After the Tito-Šubašič Agreement, he joined the Partisans. After the war, he was an interpreter and had contact with British, American and French representatives in Ljubljana. He also tried to organize a political opposition. Ljubo Sirc was accused of spying and treason and was sentenced to death in the so-called Nagode trial. His sentence was then commuted to twenty years of forced labour. After seven and a half years, he was set free in 1954. Because the secret police wanted him to collaborate and because he found no work, he illegally left Yugoslavia and went to Great Britain, where he was a professor of economics in Glasgow. After 34 years, he came back to Yugoslavia for the first time. His verdict was annulled, but he got only a small part of his and his family’s property restituted. In 1992, Sirc was the presidential candidate of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia.

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