I would never have thought that the mayor of Motovun, Slobodan Vugrinec, is a fan of my Residua. The way he welcomed me to Motovun years ago would suggest otherwise, for sure (“The Color of My House,” August 17, 2003). Anyhow, this morning I got a hefty piece of registered mail summoning me to the Municipal Court in Pazin on December 1. Vugrinec is suing me for slander on account of a piece of mine published on my website (“Croatia Spells Conflict of Interest,” October 3, 2008). To make matters worse, the same piece also appears on the website of Green Istria, an association concerned with green issues on the peninsula.

The first warning of legal action came at the public discussion of the environmental impact study of golf development to the west of Motovun on October 21 (“The Mayor and His Stooges: An Electronic Mail Message to the Members of Motovun – Eco Town,” October 22, 2008). At the meeting, the mayor demanded my apology for slander, which I refused to give. I told him that we should discuss such matters in the presence of our lawyers, and that the public discussion should concern only the study itself.

Now, the court case concerns the fourth paragraph of the offending piece, in which I claim that “the town council that will ultimately decide what to do with golf development [in Motovun] includes many members who stand to gain directly from it by the sale of their land,” as well as that “this is why the mayor has selected them for the council in the first place.” Of course, all this is very difficult to either prove or disprove, for the Istrian political shenanigans are intricate beyond compare. Interestingly, the members of the council are not suing me; rather, the only suitor is Vugrinec himself, and that only as a private person, not as a public official.

For all the emotional distress he has personally suffered, Vugrinec demands twenty-thousand kuna plus legal expenses, which would add up to some three-thousand pounds sterling at today’s exchange rates. Tomorrow I will meet with a lawyer recommended by some friends, and I will discuss with him all the options I am facing. However, I am most inclined to paying everything outright and getting rid of the court case in one fell swoop. As I now know that the mayor is a fan of my Residua, I sincerely hope that he will be pleased with my pragmatic approach as soon as he stumbles upon this piece. Surely, I would hate it if my readers suffered any emotional distress on account of anything I have written!

Addendum I (November 14, 2008)

Seeing that I am rather despondent by the latest turn of events in Motovun, many of my friends and acquaintances are trying to bolster my morale. “Don’t give up without a fight,” some of them say or write. Strangely enough, these were the parting words of the lawyer I hired this morning to represent me in this pitiful case. Perhaps a few years my junior, he did not strike me as someone out for the money, either. In fact, he seemed to be genuinely interested in serving the justice. “Don’t give up without a fight,” I keep repeating under my breath ever since our meeting.

Addendum II (November 15, 2008)

“Don’t give up without a fight,” it kept buzzing in my mind all day yesterday, “don’t give up without a fight…” This morning I already offered a plan of counter-attack to my lawyer. This would be another case of slander, of course, but a much more serious one. Much, much more serious. Besides, the evidence is so much more palpable, and in Croatian. Much, much more palpable. But enough of this at this time and place. After all, the good mayor is a fan of my Residua. My sincere apologies to all the other fans, though. They will have to wait a while longer to learn about it all.

Addendum III (November 26, 2008)

Yesterday I called my lawyer to set up a meeting before the court hearing on December 1, but he told me that the hearing was postponed. He heard it from the judge himself. Apparently, a much more serious case needed attention as soon as possible. This morning there was nothing from the court in my mail, though. Although the language of the summons is pretty awful, threatening all sorts of things in the case I fail to appear in court for the hearing, chances are I will not be notified of the postponement until after the designated date. I am doing my best not to feel anxious about all this, but I am getting anxious nonetheless. Should I call the court and ask about the postponement? Or should I call my lawyer again and ask him about all this? The trouble is that I feel that I am at the mercy of a judicial system of an African country, rather than a European one. God only knows how they deal with nasty criminals like me in Swaziland, Mozambique, or Nigeria—countries where political freedom is roughly at the same level of development as in godforsaken Croatia.

Addendum IV (November 30, 2008)

It is Sunday, but I still called my lawyer just before noon. “Sorry to bug you at this time,“ I stammered, “but I haven’t yet received anything from the court concerning the postponement of the hearing scheduled for tomorrow.” He told me that I should not worry. “But when will the hearing actually take place?” He told me that he would let me know sometime tomorrow. “I plan to go to Zagreb for a few days,” I stammered again, “and it would be good to know when I should return to Motovun.” My lawyer was sympathetic, but not very much. “As I said,” he cut my questions short, “I’ll call you tomorrow.” How do I explain to him that my anxiety is, well, existential? How do I tell him that I do not trust the legal and judicial systems in this bizarre country? How do I explain that I feel like fish out of water? Having been a judge, a public prosecutor, and a lawyer in Istria, he cannot possibly understand any of my real concerns. Do I need a psychiatrist, instead?