The court system in Croatia is notorious for its crooked ways. Eminently practical people, judges have been on the take ever since independence. One of their tacks has been political. By aligning themselves with one of the leading parties, they have been ahead of the game for more than two decades now. Not surprisingly, the same holds for Istria. The Istrian Democratic Assembly, the leading party on the peninsula since the breakup of Yugoslavia, has formed its own web of sympathetic judges. And one of them is Denis Hek from the municipal court in Pazin, who was “my” judge several years back (“Something to Write About,” January 8, 2009). As many have warned me when the former mayor of Motovun took me to court six years ago, the cards were stacked against me. Although Hek overturned two out of three fraudulent court cases lodged against me, one of them stuck. And the regional court in Pula upheld his decision a couple of years later. This surprised no-one, as the higher court was also notorious for its intimate ties with the Istrian Democratic Assembly. But there is some reason for me to rejoice at present, for Hek has been in the Croatian news as of late. There are ever-louder claims from a number of concerned parties that he has been way too close to the leading political party in Istria. Apparently, many court cases have thus been twisted in their favor. This cannot but be good news for me, too, for the court in Strasbourg will be quite interested in my story. To wit, my trial was decided before it even started. Assuming, of course, that the highest court in Zagreb will be incompetent enough to let me go to Strasbourg. Perhaps the best they can do is to keep my appeal forever. So far, it has been with them for more than three years.