They are the people, Mr. Captain

...

Summer holidays and vacations are slowly coming to an end, and protests in Serbia, they are becoming more radical, arrests are more frequent, the number of injured policemen is increasing, and repression of demonstrators more and more powerful. The gap is deep between the authorities and the citizens, who have been protesting continuously for ten months against the corruption that led to the fall of the canopy and the death of sixteen people and children at the Railway Station in Novi Sad. The main news for the past week is that the premises of the ruling party in three cities were demolished, as well as that the panel of the High Court in Belgrade changed the decision on the detention of Minister Momirović and former Minister Vesić.

THREAT OF LIFE IMPRISONMENT

The public was informed in the previous days that after the demolition of the party premises of the ruling party in Novi Sad, detention was ordered against five persons, and measures forbidding them to leave the apartment were ordered against the sixth due to the existence of reasonable suspicion that they had committed the crime of aggravated attempted murder. As far as is known, the suspects are charged with being at the time of the attack on the premises of the ruling party in Novi Sad tried to take the lives of members of the military police special purpose unit "Cobra".

The head of the Military Security Agency announced that seven members of the unit were injured, and on that occasion one of the non-commissioned officers used a service pistol, shooting into the air. Why is an attack on members of a special military unit qualified as a serious attempted murder?

To clarify, the crime of aggravated murder differs from "ordinary" in that it is committed or attempted in a manner, under circumstances or towards a person that gives it a greater degree of gravity and danger. In this case, the alleged perpetrators are suspected of trying to take the lives of military personnel on a critical occasion while performing their official duties. Does this mean that members of one of the most elite units of the Serbian Army were on official duty at a critical time? If they did, what was that task and who entrusted them with that task, since the "Cobras" are directly subordinated to the Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces?

It is mentioned that military special forces were securing "a certain person". The question arises as to which person and on what basis. Why is this issue legally relevant? Namely, for the criminal offense of "ordinary" murder, a prison sentence of 5 to 15 years is threatened, while for aggravated murder, the minimum prescribed prison sentence is 10 years and the maximum sentence is even life imprisonment. The answer to the question of whether the "Cobras" were on official duty or not, and if so, what kind of duty, separates the suspects from the threat of life imprisonment.

IN LIGHT OF THE ARREST

After the described events in Novi Sad, there were also demonstrations in Valjevo, from which videos and photos of police brutality are still being shared via social networks. In the videos circulating, it was seen how the police officers inflicted multiple blows with the official baton and kicked the protesters who are lying helplessly on the asphalt in the area of ​​the body.

If we look at the Police Law, it clearly states that physical force can be used to repel an attack, overcome resistance or prevent self-harm, all in accordance with the rules of self-defense skills. A person lying on the ground and not offering resistance cannot be classified under any of the mentioned categories, and striking with an official baton and boot in such a situation is an unjustified and excessive use of means of coercion.

The publication of the footage of the beating of the demonstrators was followed by the publication of photos with injuries of the participants of the protest, as well as claims about the state of health of the persons treated in the Valjevo hospital and denials by the authorities. It was also announced that criminal charges would be filed against the police officers who acted on that occasion, due to the suspicion that the most serious form of crime, abuse and torture, was committed under Article 137 of the Criminal Code, which is punishable by a prison sentence of two to 10 years.

Two days after the beating of the demonstrators, another demonstration was held in Valjevo, during which the premises of the ruling party, the city administration and the prosecutor's office were attacked, and new arrests followed. In light of all the developments, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe called on the authorities to stop arbitrary arrests and to de-escalate the situation.

FORMER MINISTERS AND THEIR FORMER PRIME MINISTERS

In the sea of ​​information and misinformation, after the initial announcement that Minister Momirović and former Minister Vesić were detained due to the existence of reasonable suspicion that, during the reconstruction of the railway line between Novi Sad-Subotica-Kelebija, they damaged the state budget for more than 115 million US dollars, the news arrived that the extra-judicial panel of the High Court in Belgrade replaced the detention measure with a ban on leaving the apartment following the appeal of the defense attorneys. Court decisions should not be commented on, but legal solutions should.

Serbia has a Public Prosecutor's Office for organized crime, but it is also a fact that there is no so-called special court for organized crime. Such a legal solution cannot guarantee the full independence of judges who act in the most complex cases. Judges are referred to the special department based on the annual schedule. In a word, judges can judge cases of organized crime today, and tomorrow be transferred to handle cases of general crime, perhaps even litigation.

It seems that the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime will not be able to easily leave the public eye for some time. Namely, the release of this issue of "Vremena" should coincide with the announced "decisive response of the state" to the latest events on the streets of Serbia. After accusations of criminal acts of causing panic and disorder, and preparing acts against the constitutional order and calling for a violent change of the constitutional order, it seems that in the next phase the protesters are threatened with prosecution for an even more serious crime - Terrorism.

Along with such announcements, a certain Forum of Lawyers of Serbia appeared again, which now demands from the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, as the competent prosecutor's office, that the demonstrators be prosecuted for the crime of terrorism. At the same time, the Speaker of the National Assembly stated that "the canopy did not fall by itself" and that it was a "planned diversion". Since the aforementioned statements were made by the president of the highest representative body in Serbia, which is responsible for supervising the work of the security services and to which the BIA and the VBA submit reports, the question arises whether the president of the National Assembly knows something that the public of Serbia does not know, and if she does, when did she know and why did she not state it earlier or not state it now. How did the state authorities get into a situation where their every word is doubted?

"MORE THAN A GAME"

In these regions, during the last decades, the term "traitor", which is a very difficult word, was used lightly. The way things are going, it will be even easier to start using the term "terrorist", despite the vivid memories of the victims of terrorism from the late 1990s and early 2000s. The question of whether there are so many terrorists on the streets could be answered by paraphrasing the dialogue from the television series "More than the Game":

“Are they all?”

"Terrorists? God forbid! They are the people, Mr. Captain!"

The author is a lawyer in Belgrade