STA, 22 November 2021 - The retrial in the infamous sawn-off hand insurance fraud case continued on Monday, with Julija Adlešič - the woman whose hand was sawn off, her partner Sebastien Abramov, and his parents all pleading guilty. The Ljubljana District Court found the defendants guilty and sentenced them to prison terms.
The prosecution reached a plea agreement with the defendants on Monday, proposing a prison sentence of one year and seven months for Julija Adlešič and two years and five months for Sebastien Abramov.
The court upheld the prosecution's proposal, sentencing Adlešič and Abramov to prison sentences after their admission of guilt. They have already served most of their sentences in custody.
Abramov's parents, Tinka Huskić Colarič and Gorazd Colarič, were also found guilty by the court. Abramov's mother received a suspended sentence of one year and six months, while his father was given a suspended sentence of one year, with a probationary period of three years.
Adlešič and Abramov were already found guilty of insurance fraud by the Ljubljana District Court in September last year, convicted of having previously agreed that Adlešič would cut off her arm in order to receive a large compensation.
They took out insurance policies with five insurance companies under which, if Adlešič had been 100% disabled as a result of severing her arm, she would have received EUR 1,166,300 in compensation.
Last year, the court sentenced Adlešič to two years in prison, and Abramov to three years. His father, who was accused of taking part in the scheme, was also found guilty and got a one-year suspended sentence on two-year probation, while Abramov's mother was found not guilty.
But then the Ljubljana Higher Court overturned the first-instance sentences in July, with the explanation that the situation regarding the cause of Adlešič's injury was not sufficiently clarified.
After the retrial that took place today, Judge Marjeta Dvornik said that the guilty pleas by the defendants marked an important turning point, as that significantly speeded up and simplified the proceedings.
She added that their crimes were a reflection of the values in our society, where the need and greed for material goods seem to be increasingly emphasised.
The court acquitted the defendants of all court costs on the grounds of their poor social situation, except for a payment of around EUR 60 that will have to be paid by Huskić Colarič for costs incurred through her fault.
The defendants were not present when the verdict was handed down, and the ruling is not yet final - any potential appeals will be considered by the parties involved.
