In recent weeks, something has happened to psychiatrist Dr. Milutin Kostić, which shows that the regime is ready for worse than dismissal. There are ongoing attempts to destroy his professional credibility among patients, challenge his professional ethics and cast doubt on his expertise.
Almost two months ago, Dr. Milutin Kostic, a psychiatrist and assistant professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Belgrade, was a guest on the show "Impression of the Week". He spoke about the pressures and harassment that many citizens of Serbia go through who actively criticize the undoubtedly repressive regime in Serbia. Then he uttered a seemingly innocuous sentence that has cost him dearly in recent weeks. Milutin Kostić said that he is not afraid of a situation in which he could be fired.
It seems to many of us that this is the worst thing that can happen to someone who works in two "state" institutions: the Faculty of Medicine and the Institute for Mental Health (the popular Palmotićeva). In recent weeks, a situation has been unfolding that shows how it is mode ready for worse than failure. Moreover, the dismissal seems to be the only thing that does not threaten Kostic. Destroying professional credibility among patients, challenging professional ethics, casting doubt on his expertise and trying to destroy his public reputation are the goals for which mechanisms were launched almost immediately after he said he was not afraid of dismissal.
FIRST ATTACK: HOW DID YOU GET YOUR DOCTORATE?
In an interview with "Vreme", Doctor Kostić says that only nine days after his guest appearance in "Utisk" he received a letter from the Ethics Committee of Serbia at the Ministry of Health informing him that they had received a petition that initiated the process of reviewing all ethical aspects of scientific research work during the preparation of his doctoral dissertation. This was initiated by professor Nina Žigon, who was from another department and had no contact with the doctorate either then or now, and who threatened Dr. Kostić two years ago, for which he requested protection in writing from the then dean. It is about the doctorate defended in 2016. The application contains 19 items that Kostić should submit to the Ethics Committee.
"Vreme" had an insight into this document and what a layman can conclude at first glance is: there is no person who can answer these questions 10 years after the defended dissertation, because it is about such small details that no one would remember them after such a long time. For example, one of those 19 items is a request for Dr. Kostić to specify the exact location (headquarters or organizational unit), which actually means - the room where the statistical (!) analysis of the collected data was done, as well as the name of the person who did the statistical processing.
In second place in terms of bizarreness is the request to submit to the Ethics Committee copies of all the instructions to which the participants in the study were referred for magnetic resonance imaging at the Clinic for Neurology of the Clinical Center of Serbia, as well as the instructions for taking blood samples for analysis. In addition to all that, Milutin Kostić should also prove how he received permission from the Ethics Committee of the Institute, which approved the research in question; the entire documentation that he submitted to the Ethics Committee of the Institute when submitting a request for approval to conduct research; a copy of the informed consent form of the patients, as well as a copy of the informed consent form of the volunteers involved in the research in question; permission to conduct scientific and research work, issued by competent ethical committees and institutions.
In short, he should bring all the papers he needed not in 2016, when he defended his dissertation, but somewhere between 2011 and 2013, when he started the scientific work that will later take the form of a dissertation. The point, then, is to challenge his expertise and competence.
ATTACK SECOND: ANONYMOUS LETTERS
It seems that trying to challenge professional references is not enough. Panic should also be introduced among patients, people who are already in an emotionally sensitive state. Or at least the appearance should be created that the patients are also afraid of Dr. Kostić. Ten days after the letter from the Ethics Committee on the doctorate, Kostić received another one, this time from the Health Inspection of the Ministry of Health. He was informed that he should make a statement regarding a letter from a group of anonymous patients of the Mental Health Institute Day Hospital. We cannot transmit the entire content because it may contain confidential information about the health status of individuals, but the essence of the letter is that this anonymous group heard something about Dr. Kostić from a female doctor, so they are concerned about their well-being. Due to this letter, on June 26, the Health Inspectorate made a decision to form a Commission for the implementation of extraordinary quality control of the professional work of Dr. Milutin Kostić.
However, something happens that casts serious doubt on the authenticity of this letter. Namely, the meta data analysis, which "Vreme" also had access to, shows that both of these documents (the one from the Ethics Committee and the letter from the patients) were sent from the same computer, on which the operating system is registered in the name of a person from the Health Inspection who has been retired for several years. Well, someone will say, Kostić didn't get those letters directly from patients or from a person who has doubts about his doctorate, but from competent institutions, did he... Well, not really. One letter arrives from the Ethics Committee of Serbia, the other from the Health Inspection. And again, it can be said: well, both the Ethics Board and the inspection are located at the same address (Nemanjina 22-26). But then again, how exactly from the same computer?
THIRD ATTACK: YOU ARE HOMOPHOBIC
A few days before Kostić's guest appearance in "Impression of the Week", another unusual thing happened. Predrag Azdejković from the Gay-Lesbian Info Center and also from the Board of Directors of Radio-Television of Serbia, a man who rejoiced that a man from Novi Sad had his testicle removed after he was beaten by the police, a man who bizarrely joked about the death of a student at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, dug up the text from Milutin Kostić's blog and decided to file a complaint with the Ethics Committee of Serbia for - homophobia.
The blog post "Homosexuality: normal or not" was published by Kostić in September 2017. In this text, for which Azdejković accuses him of homophobia, Kostić advocates two theses, exclusively from a medical point of view: homosexuality is normal and there is no reason to deny same-sex oriented people the right to adopt children. Well, where is the homophobia, especially if we take into account the fact that Kostić at the very beginning expresses his political position according to which homosexuals should have all the absolutely equal rights as everyone else? Homophobia is in the eye of the beholder, because Azdejković only extracts partial quotes in the presentation, which have an exclusively stylistic function in the way Kostić writes.
For example, the original text reads in part: "Because of all these unresolved issues, I think it is right that homosexuality does not exist as a diagnosis, because of the good old legal rule that should apply in medicine as well, 'innocent until proven guilty'. But even so, I will maintain a critical attitude and be open to all kinds of well-intentioned reflections on the subject. Even if in some way over time homosexuality is irrevocably proven to be a disease, I do not think that it would necessarily have to be devastating for that population." After all, we all have some disease or disorder". From this entire work, Azdejković extracts only: "Even if, in some way, it is inexorably proven over time that homosexuality is a disease..."
To be honest, there is also a link to the full text in the application. But there is another interesting detail: the metadata for this document also show that it was created on June 4 on the same computer in the Health Inspection.
photo: milovan milenković...
AND MAYBE CANCELING IS SALVATION AFTER ALL?
After looking at all these documents, from which it is obvious that the attack on Dr. Milutin Kostić comes on three levels: from his doctorate, through public appearances, to the present moment, the question is why this is happening to someone who says in one of the most watched political shows: "I have no problem with getting fired." Wouldn't it be simpler to just fire him?
"They really function as thugs," says Kostić for "Vreme". "It's just that they don't have another idea, there's no big plan. They really think that each of us has a breaking point, as they probably do. But there's also a kind of irritation, because they can't stand that someone resists them. To that they simply say - right, now we're going to give you this and that. At the end of the day, it's tiring, because you have to respond to one memo, another memo, to collect documents. It takes away time from both patients and scientific work and wastes a lot of people."
Kostić adds that it is a kind of regime sadism, but also the desire to find a reason to fire him, so that he would be as legal as possible and that their associates would be justified in doing so. "Sadism is a big part of the equation. With them, everything works according to the 'us and them' principle. They see us as enemies, I am the enemy because I openly say what I think about them and what they do at our university. In addition, I believe that the torture of the 'loud' is a message to those who are quiet. My colleagues see what I go through, they see the constant inspections, checks of my work. They are sorry, but they are afraid that they too will not be in the same situation. In this way, the government ensures that they remain silent, that is, that the number of loud ones is kept to a minimum.”
Also, it is reasonable to ask, when such sadism is involved, why not quit your job and go into private practice. However, the matter is not simple: Professor Olivera Kontić Vučinić was dismissed from the post of head of the GAK Višegradska Clinical Center of Serbia at the beginning of June this year due to her support for students and resistance to the illegal dismissal of the dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Then, on June 23, the private practice where she has been working as a doctor for two decades was also temporarily closed. The inspection of the Ministry of Health simply broke into the office and closed it for an indefinite period.
In an interview with "Vreme", Kostić says that the clinic has started working in the meantime, but not Professor Kontić. "Even if I get fired and go into private practice, I'm not sure I could work, because they would start with their inspections. But it's not just about that, I like scientific work, I like working with students, and I can only do that within the state system. And as a leftist, I want to work with people who don't have money to pay, it's not my goal to work just for money."
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF MARK LENS
Doctor Kostić is a member of the informal group of professors "Community for the Defense of the Autonomy of the Faculty of Medicine", which was created during the institutional crisis in this institution in September of last year when the dean Tatjana Simić was replaced. Let us remind you that in that shift, a prominent role was played by Dr. Marko Lens, who was appointed to the Council of the Faculty of Medicine by the Government of Serbia.
How and why did Dr. Kostić object to this dramatis personae there is another strange detail in this story. Namely, at the end of September last year, Dr. Lance sent a series of emails to all members of the Dean's College, but for unknown reasons he also added a larger number of teachers, among them Dr. Kostić. One person asks to be exempted from further correspondence, and Kostić also joins the request, who then receives an answer from Lance that is completely out of proportion to what he asked for.
In that response, Lens accuses Kostić of promoting "anti-psychiatry". The editors of "Vremena" had an insight into the Request for establishing a violation of the code of professional ethics that Kostic sent to the Ethics Commission of the Faculty of Medicine, both because of Lance's accusations of promoting anti-psychiatry, and because of the sentence that can be read as a threat: "Regarding your standing out and occupying the center of attention, don't worry, because the five minutes dedicated to you are yet to come, so you will have the opportunity to shine."
Looks like those five minutes have come.
photo: izmz...
The entire institute is in disgrace.
The Institute for Mental Health is one of the health institutions whose employees have expressed solidarity with the rebellious society since the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad and the beginning of the student blockades. Let us remind you that during the fifteen-minute silence in front of the Institute building, on January 31, 2025, a man drove his car into the employees and injured two female doctors.
And then on August 19 last year, the Ministry of Health issued a decision to the Institute for Mental Health suspending all scientific research. With this decision, all planned research was temporarily suspended, as well as those that were ongoing at that moment. According to the decision, the suspension should last until the Institute submits documentation to the Ethics Committee of Serbia in accordance with the laws on health care, patient rights, health documentation and records in the field of health and until it receives a positive opinion from the committee for conducting research. The decision entered into force on September 1, 2025 and is still in force, although by the end of August all documentation was submitted and in the meantime no errors or violations were recorded.
Two months ago, the entire management of the Institute was replaced, including Dr. Kostić, who was the assistant director. The first move of the new administration was the removal of Dr. Kostić from the post of head of the Day Hospital.
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