January 19, 2018
The STA reports January 19, 2018, that Senior State Prosecutor Matija Benulič is facing quite a conundrum if he is to secure convictions in a burglary case from 2011. He has enough evidence to put the culprit behind bars, but there are just too many possibilities: the DNA obtained by the police belongs to identical twins.
Twins Alen and Edin Eljezi, who are said to have taken good use of their shared appearance in run-ins with the police, are charged with grand theft for breaking and entering in the building of the AJPES agency for public legal records in December 2011.
The suspected culprits took 100 EURO from one of the offices in the building, but caused much more damage when they forced their way into the building.
It was the ruckus that got them arrested, as a witness indicated their car to the police, which found biologic traces belonging to two persons. The problem is that the DNA could belong to Alen or Edin Eljezi or both of them.
This was pointed out by the defence, which argued that two persons could not be put to trial for the same crime, when it is possible that it had been perpetrated by only one of them.
However, the court allowed prosecution, arguing there was well-grounded reason to suspect that both of them had been involved in the offence.
Lucky for the prosecution, but potentially a nail in the twins' coffin, the other set of traces found in the car belonged to Roman Potočnik, who already pleaded guilty at the pre-trial hearing.
Potočnik, who got a suspended sentence of six months, was called to testify, but did not show up for the hearing.
The next hearing in the case will be held on 9 February.
