Lawyer Dragan Palibrk, defense attorney of former minister Tomislav Momirović, assessed that the decision of the judge for the preliminary proceedings of the High Court to determine a month's detention was "shameful", and that this was not the first time that judicial institution acted as "an extended arm of the prosecution".
He told the Beta news agency that "the hardest thing for him is that he learned about the detention decision from the media", instead of his legal representative Momirović it is handed to the first, so that he can gain an insight into it.
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Palibrk adds that he still has no insight into this decision, that he will go to pick it up on Monday, that he will file an appeal against it within the legal term of three days, as well as that he hopes that the competent judicial panel "will only respect the law and basic principles and the constitutionally guaranteed rights of every person".
"(The decision was made) without any basis, life or legal foundation... (I hope) and that the court will no longer allow one man and a certain group of people to abuse and use a serious institution such as the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (TOK) for political and private purposes," Palibrk said.
The High Court in Belgrade today ordered custody of up to 30 days for 13 suspects in the case of alleged corruption during the reconstruction of the Railway Station in Novi Sad and the reconstruction and modernization of the Novi Sad - state border (Kelebija) railroad, including former ministers Tomislav Momirović and Goran Vesić.
The detention decision is final, and the lawyers of the suspects can appeal against this decision within the next three days.
Photo: Miloš Milivojević/TanjugVladimir Djukanovic
Đukanović: If what Momirović is accused of is true, they must arrest the entire Government of Serbia
A high-ranking official of the Serbian Progressive Party, Vladimir Đukanović, accused the "deep state" of the arrests of former ministers suspected of corruption on the high-speed rail project to the border with Hungary, stating that if what the arrested officials are accused of is true, then the entire Government of Serbia would have to be arrested.
Đukanović, who is also a lawyer by profession, told Informer last night that he spoke with the wife of the recently arrested former minister Tomislav Momirović, stating that she is "not in the best condition" because of the whole situation, and that the recent arrests were initiated by representatives of the "deep state".
"If what they (and Momirović) are accused of is true, they must arrest the entire Government of Serbia, they are not normal because of what they are doing... we must oppose (representatives of) the deep state and the parallel system, otherwise they will take over the entire country," Đukanović assessed.
Source: Beta
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