Slovenia's election campaign delivers bombshells

Slovenia's election campaign continues to deliver bombshells.

Worried about election interference, a group of investigative journalists and researchers have presented an investigation report linking recent wire taps scandals to an Israeli private intelligence agency and the largest Slovenian opposition party, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

Shortly before the 22 March general election, the group exposed alleged foreign intelligence activity that they believe has been behind a series of leaked recordings and covertly filmed videos targeting Slovenian public figures.

Relying on anonymous sources and data such as flight trackers, they learned that senior representatives of Black Cube, a company founded in 2010 by former Israeli intelligence officers, met with Democratic Party (SDS) leader Janez Janša in Ljubljana in December last year, just a few months before the leaks caused a political firestorm due to corruption allegations.

Warnings about interference in Slovenian democracy

What has been going on is a major interference in Slovenia's democracy and an attack on the country's sovereignty, Nika Kovač, head of the high-profile NGO 8 March Institute, told a press conference in Ljubljana.

The NGO recognised the leaks as part of a pattern including attempts at swaying elections in some countries in recent years, and they joined forces with the weekly Mladina and social media and anti-disinformation experts, who are better equipped at investigating such matters, she said, adding that it is essential to investigate the corruption allegations too.

According to Mladina's investigative journalist Borut Mekina, an aircraft operated by one of Israel's leading private jet operators for VIP transport and special operations for government and private clients landed three times at Ljubljana Airport in recent months - in November, December and February. The three flights cost in total nearly EUR 100,000, Mekina said.

It is not known who was on this jet in November and February, but the investigation was able to determine who came to Slovenia on 22 December. The report claims that Israeli nationals Dan Zorella, co-founder and CEO of Black Cube, one of the world's largest private spy agencies, and Giora Eiland, a retired senior officer in the Israeli army and prominent intelligence consultant, were two of the four people on that aircraft.

They reportedly met with Janša at his party's headquarters in Ljubljana. The meeting lasted approximately two hours. Three of the visitors then departed for Rome, while one of them is believed to have stayed in Slovenia. The matter raises a lot of questions, Mekina said.

"The integrity of Slovenia's election is at risk. We're in a situation where there are professionals who make their living by destroying democratic processes," said social media researcher Filip Dobranić, who also took part in the investigation as did Israeli fact-checker Achiya Schatz.

It could be that this potential operation was completely transparent and there are receipts that could back that, but at this stage there is reason for concern, Dobranić added.

Black Cube's involvement in controversial sting operations

Often dubbed a "private Mossad", Black Cube has been linked to and criticised for some controversial intelligence operations, including the one where they aided Harvey Weinstein. The once powerful film industry mogul employed the firm in an attempt to squash a New York Times article that shed light on sexual misconduct allegations against him and sparked the #MeToo movement.

Several Black Cube representatives, including Zorella, were given suspended prison sentences in Romania after being convicted of trying to intimidate Laura Covesi and hack into her email account back in 2016 when she served as the country's top corruption prosecutor. She went on to become the European chief prosecutor in 2019.

Black Cube has distanced itself from these operations and said that it is no longer taking over cases involving sexual harassment or violent clients, and that it operates in accordance with the law.

The company is based in London, Tel Aviv and Madrid and has operated in more than 75 countries. "Even though we're talking about a private firm, quite a few cases have been documented in the past indicating its links to the state of Israel," Mekina said.

Parallels between operations in Slovenia and Hungary

Drawing parallels between the recent leaks in Slovenia and similar pre-election sting operations in Hungary, the report by Mladina says that Black Cube operatives were also active in operations carried out before Hungary's general elections in 2018 and 2022.

In the run-up to the 2018 election they reportedly used false identities to establish contacts with leading representatives of Hungarian NGOs, "lured them to meetings under the pretext of business opportunities, and secretly recorded them". The recordings were leaked just a few weeks before the election, and helped Hungarian PM Viktor Orban's campaign. Black Cube has denied any involvement.

Mladina writes that the firm carried out a similar operation before the Hungarian election in 2022, using a network of fake LinkedIn profiles. This time around, Black Cube was exposed as LinkedIn confirmed that the company was responsible for the operation, and removed all fake profiles from the platform.

"Over the past decade, Black Cube has carried out several more such operations," Mladina said.

She added that these methods followed the same pattern as the one used for Slovenia's leaks, which targeted, among others, a former justice minister turned consultant and a prominent lawyer.

Report sparks heated responses

"Today an attack on democracy was made very clear to the Slovenian public," Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said in response to the investigation.

She added that the Israeli private intelligence firm's interference in the campaign was a "direct attack" on Slovenia's sovereignty and an attempt to undermine voters' trust in the fairness of election.

According to her, the report reveals the ties between Janša's SDS and Black Cube.

Meanwhile, the largest opposition party said this was the first time they had heard of Black Cube while adding that a monument should be erected in Ljubljana to honour the company for its part in exposing corruption in Slovenia.

The ruling coalition is upset in the wake of the latest revelations with the Left calling on relevant authorities to launch an investigation into the matter. President Nataša Pirc Musar also expects them to take action while urging voters to cast their votes in the election.

The parliamentary Intelligence and Security Service Oversight Commission (KNOVS) is looking into the claims about Black Cube's involvement. The opposition-controlled commission has visited Slovenia's intelligence and security agency SOVA and police to verify the claims.

According to commission chair Janez Žakelj, an MP for the junior opposition party New Slovenia (NSi), SOVA did not confirm the claims. His statement upset two KNOVS members from the coalition, who described it as an attempt at misleading the public.

Several media outlets have then reported that SOVA confirmed four Black Cube representatives were in Slovenia on 22 December, told KNOVS their names and provided information about other visits, but the agency does not have the information they met Janša on that day.

Meanwhile, there have also been insinuations that some members of the cabinet succumbed to undue influence as the government recently voted against joining a suit against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Deputy Prime Minister Matej Arčon has rejected these suggestions. He is a member of the ruling party, the Freedom Movement, which is believed to have played a decisive role in the vote.

Fajon did not want to comment on that, but she did say that "these insinuations emerged already in the past, and it's likely the pressure of interference of foreign agents in the election was among the factors affecting a decision by a minister or two".

Photo: STA