Šiško, a former leader of the Maribor sports supporters group Viole, has also headed the ultrapatriotic Hervardi society for over a decade and a half. Hervardi has been the dominant ultra-nationalist/traditionalist organisation in Maribor, largely stifling out various skinhead and neo-Nazi groups in the region. Hervardi was named after a military guard of the Old Slavic state Carantania. Šiško had already commandeered a volunteer militia during the brief Slovenian Independence War of the early 1990s. Hervardi had in the past also organised periodic get-togethers where members, clad semi-matching clothing (matching shirts and baseball caps embroidered with emblems, with participants many also wearing fatigue bottoms), engaged in group activities that included flag raising, and paintball tournaments. As one journalist put it in 2011, "Hervardi are otherwise also known for organising forest camps for the purpose of military training". Šiško has previously served a 2-year jail sentence for planting a car bomb.