STA, 12 July 2022 - Celje police are investigating an apparent murder-suicide that took place in the Šentjur area in eastern Slovenia on Monday. Initial findings indicate that a 61-year-old man shot his 64-year-old partner and then shot himself, Milan Vogrinec, chief Celje criminal investigator, told the press on Tuesday.

The suspect, who had no previous convictions for any offence, shot his partner several times with a gun, Vogrinec said, adding that no other injuries have been found on her body so far.

Six long-barrelled rifles and three guns were found and confiscated during the search of the murder scene.

The suspect, who was a member of a shooting club, had the needed documents and permits for the weapons, but the gun he had used to murder his partner was not registered.

Prior to the murder, the police had never had to intervene in any disputes or incidents between the couple.

The investigation into what appears to have been another intimate partner homicide in Slovenia is ongoing.

STA, 27 January 2022 - The Celje Higher Court has upheld the sentencing of a man who attempted to murder his former partner and their daughter with tranquillisers concealed in doughnuts to 23 years in prison. The sentence imposed by the Celje District Court last June is now final, the daily newspapers reported on Thursday.

Luka Vlaović was given the combined sentence for two attempted murders in a vicious and insidious way, and for threatening the ex-partner's father.

He was given a 13-year sentence for the attempted murder of the former partner, a 12-year sentence for the attempted murder of the daughter, and a three-month sentence for the threats, which were combined into a 23-year prison sentence.

The case emerged in early January 2021, as it was revealed that Vlaović tried to poison his former partner and their daughter, who was six years old at the time, with doughnuts laced with Lorazepam.

The man was spending time with the daughter on the day of the incident as scheduled, but failed to bring her back to her mother at the arranged hour.

When his former partner called him to announce that she was coming to pick up the child, he told her to enter his apartment as they were making doughnuts. When she came in, he offered her and the daughter the doughnuts containing the tranquilliser.

The mother and daughter fell ill as they were driving home, so they called their relatives and sought medical assistance. It was determined in hospital that they had been poisoned.

During the trial, the prosecution somewhat modified the indictment to accuse Vlaović of attempting the murders out of revenge, as the former partner had submitted a proposal to court that his contacts with the daughter be supervised, which he could not accept.

The court also heard a pharmacology expert, who testified that the former partner had consumed at least 20 Lorazepam pills in the doughnuts and the daughter consumed at least six to eight pills.

The expert said that the pills reached full effect in an hour to two after consumption, and that they had definitely had an effect on the partner's ability to drive a vehicle.

Reporting the upholding of the sentence, the newspapers Delo, Dnevnik, Večer and Slovenske Novice said today that the Celje Higher Court had rejected all appeals by Vlaović's defence and by Vlaović himself, who has not admitted guilt.

The defendant had told investigators that the substance that caused the poisoning was a medication intended for his use.

According to the media, what contributed to such a high sentence is Vlaović having a previous criminal record of violent offences, including an attempted murder.

STA, 7 January 2022 - A series of stabbings has taken place in the area around Celje in less than a week with the police handling four cases of stabbings plus an attack with scissors in a secondary school since 1 January, in addition to three suspected domestic violence offences.

The first incident took place on a footpath by the railway in Celje on Saturday, 1 January, as an accidental argument between two men escalated into a fight.

A 35-year-old man stabbed a 38-year-old man with a knife and seriously injured him. The incident was treated by the police as attempted homicide.

Another homicide attempt took place during the night between 2 and 3 January in a retirement home in Celje, as a 64-year-old resident attacked another resident with a knife and seriously injured him.

An incident in one of the secondary schools in Celje followed on 5 January, where a first-year student caused minor abrasions to his teacher.

According to unofficial information, the student allegedly stabbed the teacher with a pair of blunt-tipped scissors after she failed him during an oral examination in mathematics.

The Celje police then announced today that two more cases of attempted homicide were currently under investigation.

The first one happened in the village of Prebold near Celje, where a 45-year-old man stabbed a 44-year-old man on Thursday. The police have already detained the suspect and three other people overnight.

The Celje police were then notified of another stabbing at half past three in the morning, as a 37-year-old man, originally from the area around Laško, allegedly stabbed a 45-year-old woman with a knife in Celje and seriously injured her.

STA, 29 November 2021 - The rising prices of energy in wholesale markets are already affecting retail prices of distance heating. In November, the costs of distance heating were up by 38% on average. It was the most expensive in Maribor and the cheapest in Celje, shows a survey by the Energy Agency [Agencija za energijo].

In nine Slovenian municipalities - Ljubljana, Maribor, Kranj, Celje, Slovenj Gradec, Velenje, Jesenice, Ravne na Koroškem and Trbovlje - the average retail price of heating for a typical household in a multi-apartment building with the average annual consumption of 6.21 megawatt hours rose by 38% to EUR 118 in November in year-on-year comparison, the agency says on its website.

The price of heating went up the most in municipalities where the main source of energy is gas or coal.

According to the agency, the rising price of heat from distribution systems, which are predominantly gas-fired, is mainly driven by new contract prices for this source of energy source and by monthly purchases of missing carbon dioxide emission allowances. Meanwhile, the price of heat from distribution systems whose primary fuel is coal is most affected by high prices for emission allowances.

In November, the biggest annual surge was recorded in Marbor and Jesenice (by 77%), and in Trbovlje (by 43%).

In Maribor, the retail price of heat also went up by 18% in monthly comparison. At EUR 173.54 per megawatt hour, it is the highest among all nine municipalities included in the survey. Jesenice follows with EUR 166.18, which remained flat compared to October.

In Jesenice, the authorities agreed last week to reduce the variable part of the price for November and December by EUR 15, while talks on other solutions are under way as well.

In Celje, the price remains stable and the lowest, at EUR 83.75 per megawatt hour. The agency says this is mainly because a significant share of heat is obtained from waste processing and wood biomass.

The Energy Chamber warns that the state must be prudent when introducing measures for mitigating the negative effects of energy prices both for households and companies. There must be no interfering with market mechanism, the chamber said after Friday's session of its managing board.

The measures for mitigating the effects of energy price hikes must be introduced as soon as possible, as operations of certain companies are already seriously in danger, the chamber said, noting that distance heating systems were under big financial pressure.

"Short-term measures to mitigate the energy market situation must be targeted and temporary and must not affect the functioning of the market as a whole and the long-term competitiveness and investment capital of energy companies, which is key to the green transition to a climate-neutral society," the chamber stressed.

At the same time, the measures should help maintain the competitiveness of energy-intensive industries, especially those that have already made significant efforts to improve energy efficiency.

The chamber believes the state could also use the Climate Change Fund to cover the extraordinary costs of large energy-intensive industrial consumers who have contracts with domestic electricity producers.

The chamber also stressed that the current situation was ideal for all stakeholders to focus on longer-term measures, which could include investing in sufficient capacity or building new power generation units, including nuclear power generation units, and in all available renewable energy sources, as well as in the energy recovery from waste.

STA, 3 November 2021 - The upgrade of a 26-kilometre railway section between Zidani Most and Celje in eastern Slovenia was declared completed at a ceremony on Wednesday which heard the project cost EUR 230 million, which is about EUR 50 million less that the initial cost estimate. 

Addressing the ceremony in Celje, Aleš Mihelič, a state secretary at the Infrastructure Ministry, said the investment tackled one of the weak points on the national rail network that had not been able to support heavy and long train compositions.

"The upgrade has increased the throughput, shortened travel times and made railway transport more comfortable and, above all, safer," the official said.

As a result, the capacity of what this section of the main railway between the Zidani Most junction and the Šentilj crossing with Austria has increased from 328 to 354 trains per day.

The project, for which Slovenia obtained EUR 90 million in EU funds, also involved modernisation of related infrastructure, including bridges, grade-separated crossings, and renovation of railway stations in Celje, Laško and Rimske Toplice.

Mihelič also noted the EUR 90 million EU-subsidised project underway to upgrade the Pragersko rail junction, one of the main rail hubs in the country.

He said the government was intent on investing a great deal of attention and money to make the railways more competitive with the motorway and road network.

As soon as the core rail network is modernised up to the standard seen in advanced countries, the government is also planning to focus on regional railways and new competitive rail links.

The Infrastructure Ministry has been working on a "visionary and ambitious" plan of investment into rail infrastructure for the next 30 years, which Mihelič indicated would cost about EUR 12 billion. Half a million euro has been ringfenced for the purpose in each of the budgets for the next two years.

STA, 15 September 2021 - An exhibition on Alma M. Karlin (1889-1950) will open on Wednesday at the Weltmuseum Wien, shedding light on the life and work of the famed Slovenian author and globetrotter. The show is open until 18 January.

Conceptually, the show mirrors the 2020 monograph Neskončno Potovanje Alme M. Karlin" (Endless Travels of Alma M. Karlin) by Barbara Trnovec, a curator from the Celje Regional Museum who has studied Karlin's life for many years.

She has co-curated the exhibition together with Reinhard Blumauer of the Weltmuseum, the Celje Regional Museum said.

The exhibition showcases objects that Karlin collected during her travels, along with her photographs and her biography. According to Trnovec, the way the exhibits are showcased, "each one comes across as a work of art".

In lieu of a catalogue, the exhibition will be accompanied by the English and German translations of Trnovec's monograph.

Karlin embarked on a world tour in 1919 and travelled alone for eight years. To make money, she wrote articles for a Celje newspaper and occasionally took on various jobs, a remarkable feat for her time.

After finishing her journey, she soon became well known abroad. She held lectures around Europe. In a 1931 calendar, she was presented as one of the most influential women in Germany.

Although she was born in Celje, her mother decided that her mother tongue will be German, but Karlin later showed her devotion to her homeland by becoming a fierce opponent of Nazism and joining the Partisan movement in 1944.

Staying true to her principles, Karlin eventually fought against Communism as well. Both regimes spied on her and both wanted to kill her. She died five years after the end of World War II of typhoid and cancer, in poverty and obscurity.

The show will open with an address by Slovenian Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti.

You can learn more about the exhibition here

STA, 19 April 2021- Celje police have indicted 15 suspects over 49 counts related to drug trafficking, transport of illegal migrants, classified information leaking and bribery, Celje Criminal Police chief Damijan Turk told the press on Monday.

The police completed a large investigation of drug trafficking, which started in mid-2020, conducting 16 house searches and arresting 12 suspects last week.

Seven suspects were brought before an investigating magistrate on Friday, with six remanded in custody.

The drug ring based in the broader area of Celje featured several citizens of Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and North Macedonia, who purchased, stored and sold cocaine and cannabis across the country.

Its individual members also organised transport of illegal migrants from Croatia via Slovenia to Italy.

"In two cases, police pulled over individual members of the ring with 58 migrants and two drivers while they were en route to Italy," said Turk.

"In another two cases, the ring managed to successfully take illegal migrants across the border from Slovenia to Italy."

During the investigation, the police realised the ring had some sensitive information, only to discover that they had received them from a Celje District Court employee.

The stenographer, working for the criminal department since 2018, provided the ring information such as what activities police would conduct or where, for personal gain.

The suspect has disclosed at least 100 sensitive documents, as a result of which a large number of investigations were less successful than they could have been.

If found guilty, he could go to jail for up to eight years, Turk said in a statement to the press.

The Celje District Court said the stenographer was no longer employed at the court, and no longer has access to the court's premises or data bases.

It explained that the suspect had had access to the sensitive data as part of his job.

The 15 suspects have been indicted for 38 counts related to drug production or trafficking, six to leaking classified information, one to giving a bribe, and four to illegal crossing of the border.

The suspects are aged from 22 to 50, with the oldest among them having had run-ins with the police before.

STA, 5 January 2020 - A 32-year-old man from Celje faces charges for trying to poison his former partner and their six-year-old daughter with doughnuts and for threatening them, the newspapers Dnevnik and Večer reported on Tuesday. He faces more than 15 years for the vicious crime.

The 32-year-old was spending time with his daughter on the day of the incident as scheduled, but failed to bring her back to her mother at the arranged hour.

When his former partner called him to tell him that she was coming to pick up the child, he told her to enter his apartment because they were making doughnuts.

When she came in, he offered her the doughnuts, which however contained tranquillisers.

The mother and daughter fell ill on their way home, so they called their relatives and sought medical assistance. At the hospital it was determined that they were poisoned.

According to Dnevnik and Večer, the 32-year-old is charged with two attempted murders in a vicious and insidious way, for which he faces at least 15 years in prison. He also faces a fine or up to six months in prison for making threats.

Police said the man had a criminal record of violent offences, including an attempted murder, so police protection had been provided to the two victims until the 32-year-old was placed in custody.

He has been in custody since 7 October, and the custody has been extended until 6 January due to the danger of repeat offence. An indictment against the man was filed on 31 December 2020.

The 32-year-old told investigators that the substance which caused the poisoning was a medicine intended for his use.

Slovenia saw a substantial rise in the number of homicides, murders and attempted murders last year, with their number more than doubling from 22 in 2019 to 49.

This was also the first year in Slovenia's history when three triple murders were recorded.

Celje is the third largest town in the country and home to the most influential late medieval noble dynasty on the territory that eventually became known as Slovenia, the Counts of Celje.

Lying at a great location in the lower part of Savinja River Valley, Celje has a long history going back to the Hallstattt era. Celje’s original and oldest name that we know of was Keleia which was changed to Celeia in Roman times. The city continued its relative importance throughout history, and was one of the first to get a railway connection in 1846.

After the Second World War, the town on the riverbanks of the Savinja turned into a lively industrial and commercial centre, and today it has all the characteristics of a regional, administrative, business, cultural, school, health and tourist centre.

Ulica XVI. Divizije:

1909

1918

1927

1956

Prešernova ulica:

1914

Krekov trg:

1937

1954

Gledališki trg:

1905

1960

1961

Stara grofija:

1905

Ljubljanska ulica:

1907

Miscelaneous:

St Joseph's Parish Church, 1916

STA, 9 March 2020 - Celje criminal investigators are filing preliminary criminal charges against four suspects and a legal entity for forcing at least 24 foreign women, most of them from Ukraine, into prostitution.

 Presenting the conclusions of an investigation that had been running for more than a year, Boštjan Hmelak, the head of the organised crime division at the Celje Police Department, said none of the suspects, aged between 42 and 74, had previous criminal records.

They face charges on a total of 25 counts of crime, including human trafficking, which carries between three and 15 years in prison as well as a fine.

The police inquiries established that the ring lured young women from abroad, mostly from Ukraine and socially deprived areas, by means of ads and personal contacts.

After putting them up in a hotel with a night club and a casino, the suspects forced the victims into prostitution. If they resisted, the women were punished by being deprived of their earnings or having their contracts cancelled.

The suspects also made money from the clients who had to pay the women costly drinks as a precondition for sexual services.

The investigators have so far identified 24 victims of human trafficking. Aged between 24 and 40, most come from Ukraine, one is a Romanian citizen and one comes from Moldova.

They have since returned home or left to work at other clubs. None of the 12 women interviewed by the police identified themselves as victims of crime.

The suspects were in control of eight to twelve victims on average each of whom had about 250 patrons a month, said Hmelak.

One of the suspects, employed as a waitress, was found with EUR 104,000 in cash on herself. The police are yet ascertaining how much all the suspects had made from criminal activity.