STA, 2 December 2019 - The Nova Gorica District Court has sentenced Iraqi citizen Al Hamdani Yassin Amar to six years in prison for assaulting a taxi driver and a police officer, and an attempted car theft in the Nova Gorica area in July. After serving his sentence, he will be deported from Slovenia.
The 26-year-old defendant was not present in court for the sentencing on Monday, after confessing to the crimes at a pre-trial hearing last week.
Prosecutor Ana Radovanović Širok sought a two-year prison sentence for assault on the taxi driver, another four years for assault on a police officer, and five months for attempted car theft, or a total of six years.
Judge Igor Majnik agreed with her proposal and issued a six-year prison sentence for the 26-year old, who is in custody.
The Trade Union of Police Officers (SPS) expressed indignation over the length of the sentence already after the pre-trial hearing. It argued that the man had committed serious crimes, and that a police officer had been a victim.
The trade union said it saw the sentence as a "complete devaluation of life, security and personal integrity of all police officers and all citizens who could found themselves in the role of the injured party".
In July, the Iraqi man entered a taxi in Vrtojba but only a few kilometres later, it became clear to the taxi driver that the man did not have enough money to pay for the ride to Ljubljana, so he pulled over on the expressway and wanted him to leave the car.
But the 26-year-old resisted and attacked the taxi driver with a hobby knife. Two police officers rushed to the scene to find the driver bleeding from his neck and saying he had been attacked by a man in the near-by taxi.
The taxi driver had escaped from the vehicle and took the keys with him, while the Iraqi man attempted to hotwire the car to get to Ljubljana on his own.
As the police officers approached him, he responded with threats and started running towards one of them with the knife shouting, police said.
The officer fired a warning shot, but that did not stop the man so he shot him in the leg.
