While Serbia is buzzing about protests and blockades, the opposition and the professional public are warning about the government's attempt to strengthen its control over the judiciary.
The President of the People's Movement (SNP) of Serbia, Miroslav Aleksić, told FoNet that "from reliable prosecutorial sources" he received information that 55 will be appointed on Monday. prosecutors close ones Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), and several other interlocutors expressed similar doubts
Aleksić previously wrote on the X social network that "while Serbia is blocked, students and citizens demand justice, the regime is planning the election of loyalist prosecutors", claiming that "the head of the VJT in Belgrade, Nenad Stefanović, the resigned government minister Maja Popović, the chief prosecutor of Zagorka Dolovac and several other eligible prosecutors agreed on the distribution of the spoils at a secret meeting this weekend.
In an interview with FoNet, Aleksić said that Dolovac "has been working for SNS and the current government for years, bypassing his obligations."
He believes that, if such an election of prosecutors takes place, it will be "an illegitimate election because the Government has fallen."
"The prosecution is a key problem in society. The Prosecutor's Office is a problem because as an institution it has not been doing its job for years, even when it comes to the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad and the murder of 15 of our fellow citizens, and one of the key reasons why the students started this fight for justice, together with the citizens. For justice, for society against crime, criminalization and corruption, which the prosecution has generated for years," said Aleksić.
He said that he believes that "they are doing it under the pressure of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and his regime."
"Because the prosecutors are currently an institution that could deal a serious blow to the regime if they did their job, as the students are asking them to do." Therefore, justice is in their hands, in their hands is the prosecution of those responsible for the canopy and for various criminal activities, as we saw a few days ago in the publication of the KRIK network, which published sky correspondence and other correspondence, where they are in serious corrupt ventures involved people from the top of the state, but also the president's brother Andrej Vučić, and Miloš Vučević, Zvonko Veselinović and so on," said Aleksić.
He believes that Dolovac is "the biggest fortress of the Vičić regime".
Ninić: Agreed list of 55 names
Lawyer Ivan Ninić told FoNet that the information about the Stefanović-Popović-Dolovac meeting came to him from "credible lawyer sources".
"During the weekend, credible information leaked into legal circles that a meeting of individuals from the top of the judicial branch of government was held with the Minister of Justice, at which a list of 55 names of prosecutors in Belgrade alone, who should be elected and advance their careers, was agreed upon. There are servile candidates and mutually connected persons on the list, for whom firm guarantees have been given that they will not make waves", Ninic said.
He stated that the session of the High Council of Prosecutors regarding the selection of new prosecutors was postponed several times, because during December and January "a real war broke out between the main actors in the judiciary, until finally these days personal and political interests among them were not profiled and agreed upon." ".
"I don't believe that the President of the Republic is personally interested in a name and surname, he is only looking for guarantees that he is a loyalist, and those guarantees can only be provided by Maja Popović, Zagorka Dolovac and Nenda Stefanović," Ninić said.
He believes that, "despite the state of society and the protests of students, whose demands are focused on the rule of law and the judiciary", it is clear that "the executive power and the top of the state, under the grain and far from the public spotlight, are carrying out processes in the framework of which they strive to establish an even stronger control over the prosecution".
"There is general mistrust in the prosecution"
Prosecutor Bojana Savović told FoNet that she is fully aware of how much the prosecutors in the basic prosecutor's offices are overloaded with work.
"I'm sorry that there were no elections for so long, but now, when there is general mistrust in the prosecutor's office, I'm afraid that all those prosecutors, among whom there are great candidates, will mark these extraordinary social circumstances as those of the regime", assessed Savović.
Lawyer Sofija Mandić from the Center for Judicial Research (CEPRIS) told FoNet that "it is very unusual that in the midst of protests, student and civil demands that the prosecutor's office do its job" a session of the Court of Justice is held at which decisions are made on the selection of a large number of prosecutors and that " the Minister of Justice in the Government, who fell together with the resignation of the Prime Minister, participates in it".
Mandić recalled that at the end of December, the session on the election of public prosecutors was postponed due to the lack of a quorum.
"Neither the minister nor the chief prosecutor appeared at the session, so it was clear that there was no agreement on who should be elected. Now, obviously, there is an agreement", said Mandić.
Source: Phonet
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