STA, 14 April 2020 - The government has appointed lawyer and security expert Janez Stušek the new director of the SOVA (Slovenska obveščevalno-varnostna agencija) intelligence and security agency. He will take over on Wednesday for a period of five years with the option of re-appointment.
At the same Tuesday correspondence session, Rajko Kozmelj, who was appointed SOVA director by the previous, Marjan Šarec government, in September 2018, was relieved of his duties.
While it has become customary that each new government appoints a new SOVA boss, Kozmelj in fact stepped down in mid-March, just days after the Janez Janša government took office.
He said on 17 March that he had received no instructions or guidelines from the new government, which he saw as a sign of personal distrust.
Janez Stušek, a graduate of the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security and of the Maribor Faculty of Law, is a lawyer, director of and partner in the Stušek Law Firm, the Government Communication Office said in a release after the government session.
He is working on his PhD and has written about criminal law, police powers, anti-corruption legislation and IT law. He started his career at the Slovenian Armed Forces, but was also a lecturer at the Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security.
