Patria case

However, the abuse of secrecy to conceal unlawful practices such as fake offset agreement, (equivalent to bribery) is not a Slovenian issue, but a real European problem.

The Patria case is a chance to look at what happens in the most politically sensitive and covered areas of Western democracies: arms and state security.

The historic decision of the U.S. Administration to move the conflict against terrorisms outside United States at the end of 2001 led to the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.

[4] General Dynamics is the U.S leader in infantry vehicles which between 2002 and 2003 purchased MOWAG in Switzerland, Steyer-Daimler-Puch Speazialfahrung in Austria, and Santa Bárbara Sistemas in Spain.

[5] Major European nations such as France, the UK, Germany, Italy initiated own domestic programs replacing old generation APCs with modern Armored Vehicles.

Smaller nations on the other hand initiated process of international tender and procurement for new advanced armored personnel carriers.

Defense Daily writes in Dec 2005: "As fate would have it, Steyr’s Pandur II (General Dynamics) and Patria’s AMV were the final two contenders for the Czech Republic’s $1 billion wheeled APC contract.

[22] Furthermore, former president of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption of the Republic of Slovenia, described the bribery as "very hard to deny" in the MOT program and stated people from the government were implicated.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs left two diplomatic notes to the Finnish Government, calling the country enable the disclosure of the documents relative to the investigation in order to bring light in the issue.

[27][28] On September 6 Slovenian Government communication office asked YLE director Mikael Jungner to air a "second part" of the broadcast, including the viewpoints from other people involved and effectively negating the claims made in the program.

In a parliamentary hearing on 9 September 2008, Janša urged the members of parliament to forget the issue for now and bring it back to discussion once some proof has been advanced.

The minister responsible for administration of Patria stock, Jan Vapaavuori, said that the Finnish government does not intend to issue any statements, particularly during the election period, as that would intervene in the internal affairs of Slovenia.

[34] The first diplomatic note was answered by Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb, who stated that the government will not intervene against the journalists, in respect of the freedom of the press.

The second note was answered on similarly neutral terms: the Finnish Council of State will not and cannot interfere in an ongoing police investigation.

[37] The Austrian police suspected money laundering and other offenses, when Wolf's bank warned them about the suspicious transactions and blocked his account.

The May 2007 cable has Ambassador Robertson quoting a “clandestine source” that “PM Janez Janša’s SDS received more than EUR 2.8m ‘under the table’ from Patria.” Moreover another cable on a meeting with Janša reports that the politician’s “ignorance” about the details of the APCs tender “was a bit disingenuous, especially since we know that as Slovenia’s former defence minister he follows these issues”.

Janša denied having "requested or received any rewards or payments related to the Patria deal" in a statement on Aug 27, 2010.

[44] The five defendants in the trial are: Jože Zagožen, Tone Krkovič, Janez Janša, Walter Wolf,[45] Ivan Črnkovič.

[46] On June 5, 2013 Liubljana District Court sentenced former Prime Minister Janez Janša to 2 years of prison for receiving bribes from Patria Oy.

Finland takes it seriously and, in the Patria case, taught a lesson of democracy, of rule of law, and of business ethics to the world.

Whether MOT's charges of bribery are true or not, Finland protected the freedom of speech better than United States, and against its own national interest.

[48] The arms trade enjoys a particular status in EU, due to its essential connection with national state security, as per Art.

(b) any Member State may take such measures as it considers necessary for the protection of the essential interests of its security which are connected with the production of or trade in arms, munitions and war material; such measures shall not adversely affect the conditions of competition in the common market regarding products which are not intended for specifically military purposes.Art.

Slovenian politicians accept bribes, while the rest of the military sales involving Armoured Wheeled Infantry Vehicles is bribe-free.

[54] Another variation on this hypothesis of falsity of MOT allegations is the some journalists have been paid or tricked by some Patria competitors, in order to create a false report.

Authorities have to complete investigations, but the free press of the Continent has the professional duty and the constitutional right to research on one of the less transparent and most protected items in national budgets.

[59] In Austria the alleged Patria case scheme was exposed, perhaps because of a zealous bank clerk (or perhaps because Slovenia did not buy the Austrian Pandur).

In any case, the fault is to blame on the naïve Jorma Wiitakorpi, leader of an excellent but dwarfish defense company.

LGT Luxembourg branch can transform that money (being it a bribe or a fake indirect offset certificate) in whatever one likes in the Schengen area.

[60] MOT opened up a valuable breach in an obscured area and, if it is right, it reveals a standard of requested bribe percentage to sell weapons in Europe.