The incident happened on September 22, ahead of Slovene parliamentary elections. Among the Slovenes were members of the Slovene People's Party and its leader Janez Podobnik.
The Slovene Justice Ministry refused to forward the ruling of the Umag court to the concerned parties, stating that the incident was caused by the Croatian side. The Umag court in the meantime managed to deliver the ruling to all but one Slovene national involved in the incident.
The incident happened when the Slovene nationals illegally crossed the border near the Plovanija border crossing in the Croatian part of Istria to visit Josko Joras, an ethnic Slovene who claims that his house is located on Slovene territory.
On their way back, the Slovenes again bypassed the official border crossing point, but were stopped by the Croatian police and taken to the police station in Buje for questioning. After that they were escorted back to the Slovene border.