Prosecution of an ineligible prosecutor: Complaints against Bojana Savović

Higher public prosecution announced that the chief public prosecutor Nenad Stefanović filed reports against the prosecutor Bojana Savović to the disciplinary prosecutor of the Higher Council of Prosecutions for violating the Law on Public Prosecutions and the Code of Ethics of Public Prosecutors, by expressing her political position during the election campaign at meetings of the "ProGlas" initiative.

Bojana Savović is one of the plaintiffs who almost a year ago transferred from the Special Department for the Prevention of Corruption to the General Department, immediately after the investigation that resulted in the arrest of suspects for misappropriation of around 7 and a half million dollars in EPS.

The prosecution claimed that the dismissal was not related to the investigations being conducted in that case, however, the prosecutors in this case, Bojana Savović and Jasmina Paunović, say that they were dismissed due to disobedience.

Two prosecutors then filed disciplinary charges against the chief prosecutor Nenad Stefanović and his deputy Brankica Marić due to, as they stated, illicit influence and expulsion from the Special Department for the Prevention of Corruption. However, by the decision of the disciplinary prosecutor of the High Council of Prosecutors, the applications were rejected.

An obscure announcement

How is it "time" wrote at the time, the obscure explanation of the head of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, Nenad Stefanović, immediately raised the suspicion that something was seriously wrong

At the collegium of the Department for Suppression of Corruption of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, on Thursday, February 23, the head of that Prosecutor's Office, Nenad Stefanović, announced: "I am transferring two experienced deputy prosecutors, Jasmina Paunović and Bojana Savović, from the Department for Suppression of Corruption to the Department for general crime."

From that moment on, all the subjects they worked on were taken away from them.

After that, American Ambassador Christopher Hill met with deputy prosecutors Bojana Savović and Jasmina Paunović. The Twitter account of the US Embassy in Serbia later announced that "an independent judiciary and the fight against corruption are key to the progress of Serbia, and especially to membership in the European Union."

"The United States fully supports Serbia in this effort and appreciates the partnership of professionals in the Prosecutor's Office who are aware of this, such as Bojana Savović and Jasmine Paunović," stated the announcement with a photo of Ambassador Hill with Savović and Paunović.

What else does the prosecution say?

As stated, the fact that Savović expressed a political position represents a disciplinary offense, that is, a violation of the principle of impartiality and endangering trust in the public prosecutor's office.

The statement adds that on December 13, 2023, Savović "grossly insulted a colleague" - the deputy chief public prosecutor, which is contrary to the Code of Ethics.

It is emphasized that Article 54 of the Law on Public Prosecution is entitled "Prohibition of political activity" and that in paragraph 2 it is stated that the public prosecutor is obliged to refrain from public expression of political views and participate in public debates of a political nature, unless it is about issues concerning public prosecution, constitutionality, legality, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

It is added that the Code of Ethics stipulates that the prosecutor is obliged to refrain from publicly expressing political views and participating in discussions of a political nature and to refrain from attending and participating in political gatherings and campaigns.

According to reports, Bojana Savović was reported because on November 25, 2023, at the forum of the ProGlas Initiative in Požega, she stated: "The idea of ​​ProGlas is for everyone to be as active as possible, to collect evidence of theft and blackmail, to support a colleague at work, to support his neighbor, as is the case in Bavanište. Therefore, there are ways for each of us to do something for the society in which we live".

Prohibition of expressing political views

The statement adds that "some media reported that on that occasion farmers in protest blocked vehicles with activists of the Serbian Progressive Party in front of the house of the protest organizer in Bavanište, in the presence of MPs from opposition parties."

As indicated in the press release, Bojana Savović's statements are, according to Stefanović's position, unacceptable from several aspects: first of all, although she is a public prosecutor, she publicly reveals her political orientation and implicitly calls on citizens to do the same thing that was done to Bavanište: to go out into the streets , especially when it comes to political gatherings, as well as taking justice into their own hands - which is unacceptable for a holder of a judicial office.

The announcement also states that she was reported for a speech on December 11 in Šabac in which she said: "This is not good and something needs to be changed urgently." We do not want to live in a society of violence, to watch violence every day in the assembly, on television, in reality shows. We do not want violence in schools, traffic, our homes. This year alone, 27 women were killed, victims of domestic violence. We do not want such a society".

She was also reported because, in an interview with the weekly NIN on January 11 of this year, she violated the principle of impartiality and threatened citizens' trust in the public prosecutor's office by stating: "A society in which the prosecutor's office is truly independent and in which we have not even come to a situation where any prosecutor be person of the year... that unfortunately says more about the state of society we live in than about my heroism".

She was also reported because on December 14, 2023, in Belgrade, at the political meeting, the final meeting of the ProGlas Initiative, she stated, among other things, that in previous years indecency, hatred, and self-love were imposed on citizens, and that is why citizens will no longer retreat in front of people who are worse than them. and ready for anything and called on the citizens to wake up from the collective coma and include them in their lives, and that the people around her and the citizens who came to this meeting will not stop fighting and said that "this is just the beginning".

Eleven applications

First of all, due to participation in the Proglas rallies, the chief public prosecutor Nenad Stefanović filed 11 reports against the prosecutor Bojana Savović. She told N1 that it is sad that the first person of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office deals with such matters, and that, as she states, she is dragged into that mud and slush.

In 20 years of work, says prosecutor Bojana Savović, she did not have a single report, and now in just one week, a total of eleven. And that, among other things, because of the participation in the "ProGlas" initiative during the December elections in Serbia.

The reports are the price for the dignity, ethical and courageous actions of the prosecutors, only because they do not coincide with the ruling opinion, judges Miodrag Majić.

"People who are really fighting for the independence of the prosecutor's office, for its separation from political options, who are ready to speak loudly about it, who are ready to, in the end, bear the price for it, are additionally put on the pillar of shame by their superiors," points out Miodrag Majić, judge.

It is these superiors, states Majić, who are the bearers of the idea and well-founded fear that the prosecution in Serbia is completely under political domination.