The lawyer Jože Hribernik said in a statement that the Supreme Court had returned the case to the court of first instance for retrial before a different panel of judges.
On 11 September, the Supreme Court found that Novič's right to defence was violated in the trial which concluded with a 25-year prison sentence as Novič was found guilty of murdering his former boss Janko Jamnik in 2014.
It was announced on the following day that Novič's appeal on a point of law, filed against the sentence confirmed by the Ljubljana Higher Court last December, had been upheld.
The sentence was originally handed by the Ljubljana District Court in April 2017, after almost two years of trial, with the court agreeing with the prosecution's claim that had Novič had killed Jamnik out of revenge.
Jamnik was shot with a firearm in the head twice in a parking lot in Ljubljana as the institute held its Christmas party. He died three days later and Novič was soon arrested as the main suspect.
In the appeal on a point of law, the defence alleged serious violations of the criminal proceedings, of the Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Hribernik took issue with the courts failing to present certain evidence acquired by the defence and to answer to certain claims in the appeal, and also doubted the credibility of an ballistics expert on whose testimony the courts based their decision to sentence Novič.
After the Supreme Court ordered in September that Novič should be released from prison, the lawyer said that if it decided for a retrial, the defence would demand that Novič was tried by a different panel of judges.
Hibernik is convinced that his client will be acquitted. "There is no single piece of evidence against him, which is why we are not afraid of a retrial."
The lawyer also held a press conference today, saying that the priority of the defence in the retrial would be to provide an alibi for Novič, which would eliminate the need for the court to deal with new testimonies of expert witnesses.
Hribernik stressed that the defence was absolutely satisfied with the decision of the Supreme Court, as it had "confirmed all statements given by the defence in the appeal".
The Supreme Court, meanwhile, said in a press release that the main reason for the decision was violations of the procedural law in relation to the main piece of circumstantial evidence (gunshot residue found on hands, hair and clothes) and violations of the defendant's right to defence.
The court has ordered that new ballistics and chemical expert witnesses are used in the retrial. If they fail to establish that the gunshot residue found on the convict was definitely a consequence of the shooting at the crime scene, the court of first instance will need to make a ruling based on circumstantial evidence.
