| Summary: | In totalitarian countries, everything is subordinated to a certain ideology and dictator or party. The powers of the state are unified. Crime is part of the system. Violations of human rights occur daily. Strong political police forces are present. An effective method of repression are politically motivated trials (or show trials); their purpose is to eliminate actual and alleged enemies and to intimidate people. The trials are only seemingly being carried out in accordance with legal norms. In reality, their course and outcome are dictated either by the dictator or the party. During the Second World War, the Kočevje trial took place. It served as an example for all post-war show trials in Slovenia. It was not carried out in accordance with legal norms: in the investigation and the actual trial, human rights were violated, only witnesses and evidence that incriminated the accused were considered, the indictment was issued too late which prevented the accused from preparing their defence, the defending counsels faced a conflict of interests, the judges were lay judges. Additionally, the court in Kočevje had no legal basis since the Kingdom of Yugoslavia still existed at the time.
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