Members Bar Association of Serbia (AKS) will suspend work for one day, on Wednesday, December 11, due, among other things, to the "illegal way of enacting and adopting laws without adequate participation of the legal profession", but also due to the "selective prosecution of those responsible for tragedy in Novi Sad and selective processing of protest participants in Novi Sad". Lawyer Marko Pantić explains what this means specifically for "Vreme".
"When it comes to the explanations that the AKS is suspending its work due to the selective prosecution of those responsible for the tragedy in Novi Sad and the selective prosecution of the participants of the protest in Novi Sad - it turns out that the AKS wants to say, which I am very happy about, that free people were arrested, and not some officials, that it is a shame that people who protest are arrested after such a tragedy, and none of those possibly responsible for the tragedy, or crime, as some politicians call it, have been arrested," Pantić said.
The president of AKS is "not happy"
He said that the AKS interprets these explanations as meaning that the AKS is "concerned because students and those who protested on November 5 in Novi Sad were arrested, but no one was arrested, or a very small number of people were arrested in connection with the fall of the canopy."
Asked if this means that the AKS has sided with citizens who demand that in the event of a tragedy in Novi Sad, impartial justice be implemented, Pantić answers: "Absolutely yes, as far as I'm concerned."
Nevertheless, he pointed out that the president of the AKS "according to some of his knowledge is not happy" that such a decision was made, because he was in the minority and was outvoted during the decision-making process.
Mock public debate
Pantić pointed out that the main reason for the suspension of work, due to which the regional chambers also suspended work earlier, was the way of adopting the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Criminal Code in the Parliament of Serbia, at a session that was not held due to a fight.
"Lawyers believe that this is very controversial, primarily because the Criminal Code, along with the Criminal Procedure Code, is the umbrella criminal law. They should not be changed that often. "If the professional public, MPs or the Government of Serbia, as authorized proponents, consider that there are reasons to amend those two laws, it would have to be done after a detailed and thorough expert public hearing, which was absent in this case," Pantić said.
He assessed that the public discussion was completely faked, that only three round tables were held.
"The Ministry gave in under pressure and extended the discussion regarding the Criminal Procedure Code and regarding some amendments to the Criminal Code, but it remained uncontested and will be adopted immediately," Pantić said.
Populist measures
He added that these are populist measures that the Ministry of Justice wants to send a message to citizens that the changes were made in their interest.
As an example, he stated that an attack on a teacher in an educational institution was introduced as a criminal offense and added that many lawyers think that it was unnecessary because there are already many criminal offenses under which attacks on teachers could also be charged.
"It is populism that buys the peace of certain guilds." "A few years ago, the crime of assaulting a lawyer was introduced, but I don't know if anyone has been convicted of that crime," Pantić said.
He added that it is problematic that the penalties for traffic offenses were indiscriminately increased.
Pantić pointed out that the existing punishments for such crimes were not small even until now, but that the judicial policy was such that the perpetrators were punished lightly.
"Now we can get into a situation where someone can actually lose control of the vehicle due to something that is not their fault and they will have to go to jail if someone suffers a serious bodily injury in an accident, and a serious bodily injury can be a broken little finger or a broken nose," Pantić said.
