Revocation for fraud / state-security (Articles 26-28 ZDRS)

SI-CES-003 Revocation for fraud / state-security (Articles 16 + 25-26 ZDRS Razveljavitev za prevaro / Odvzem). involuntary state-initiated. STANDARD route. Inherits s:; ZDRS Article 28 post-1992 substitute pattern (U-I-98/91-21 repeal). CJEU Rottmann doctrine analytically operative from 2004-05-01 onwards; extended Tjebbes (C-221/17 2019-03-12) + JY (C-118/20 2022-01-18). No Slovenian preliminary reference catalogued.

The MNZ has authority to revoke a naturalisation decision under Article 16 ZDRS where, simultaneously:

(a) Citizenship was originally acquired by naturalisation. The Article 16 mechanism reaches only persons whose citizenship was acquired through the NAT-bucket pathways (Article 10 ordinary naturalisation; Article 12 facilitated naturalisation for emigrants / refugees / stateless persons; Article 13 extraordinary naturalisation in national interest). Persons whose citizenship was acquired by jus sanguinis (DSC), restoration (RST), spousal channel (MAR), birth-on-territory (BTH), or transitional Article 40 (RST) are outside the Article 16 reach — the original-grant target is the naturalisation decision specifically.

(b) The original grant was procured by false statements or wilful concealment of material facts. The standard is prevara (fraud / deception) — typically false declarations regarding identity, marital status, residential history, criminal record, language ability, civic-knowledge test results, or material-livelihood representations. Material concealment is operative: trivial or immaterial inaccuracies do not engage the Article 16 mechanism. The MNZ must establish materiality on the evidentiary record.

(c) Causation between the fraud and the grant. The fraud must have been causally relevant to the original…

1. Initiation. Article 16 and Articles 25-26 deprivation proceedings are state-initiated — the MNZ (or, in security cases, MNZ acting on referral from SOVA / Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency or Policija) is the moving party. There is no applicant-driven equivalent.

2. Evidentiary file. MNZ assembles the evidentiary file. For Article 16 fraud-revocation, this typically includes:

• The original naturalisation file (application, supporting documents, MNZ decision);
• Evidence of false statements / concealment (typically civil-record extracts, foreign-state records, criminal-record evidence, or witness statements);
• A materiality analysis demonstrating the fraud's causal effect on the grant decision. For Article 25 deprivation, the file includes:
• Evidence of foreign citizenship (precondition under Article 25 — no statelessness creation);
• Evidence of the qualifying conduct under one of the three Article 25 grounds (typically: criminal-court findings; intelligence-service membership records; documentary evidence of acts producing material harm to state interests);
• Constitutional-proportionality analysis (URS Articles 14, 22, 12, 2; CJEU Rottmann/Tjebbes/JY individualised assessment).

3. Notice and hearing. Under ZUP (Zakon o splošnem upravnem postopku) general administrative-procedure rules, the affected person must receive notice of the proposed revocation / deprivation, be served with the MNZ's evidentiary case, and be afforded the opportunity to submit written representations and, in principle, to request an oral hearing before MNZ. Vrhovno sodišče precedent (X Ips 123/2020, 2021 — Supreme Court ruling that Administrative Court must hold an oral hearing in…

Within the ZDRS chapter Prenehanje državljanstva (cessation of citizenship), the involuntary-loss column is constructed from three statutorily distinct articles:

• Article 16 ZDRS (Razveljavitev odločbe o naturalizaciji za prevaro / revocation for fraud in the original naturalisation grant) — operates upstream within the citizenship-acquisition lifecycle. Where naturalisation was obtained by false statements or wilful concealment of material facts, the issuing authority may revoke the naturalisation decision. The mechanism is discretionary (lahko / "may") rather than mandatory, and is constrained from 2004-05-01 onwards by Rottmann/Tjebbes proportionality (analytically applied by and — see Section 5).

• Article 25 ZDRS (Odvzem državljanstva / state-security deprivation) — operates downstream, against persons who already hold Slovenian citizenship and who, by their subsequent conduct, fall within the statute's enumerated grounds. The grounds catalogued in Article 25 are:

1. voluntary acts incompatible with the state (acts that, by their nature, are incompatible with Slovenian statehood);
2. foreign army or intelligence service (entry into a foreign state's armed forces or intelligence agency in defined circumstances);
3. harm to Slovenian state interests (acts producing material harm to Slovenian state interests).

Article 25 is explicitly limited to persons holding additional foreign citizenship — the statute does not authorise the creation of statelessness, consistent with URS Article 12 and the 1954 Convention obligations Slovenia succeeded to in 1992…

Substantive-scope statutory pins (operative for the route)