He just fell

On the 17th of March last year - let's recall - a Serbian Army Mi-XNUMX helicopter crashed in the immediate vicinity of Surčin Airport, in a foggy night and after repeated attempts to find a way to the airport platform. On that occasion, seven people, crew members, medical staff and a five-day-old baby "of a different religion" died on the spot, as Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said. We leave that - whether a five-day-old baby even has a "religion" - to the theologians. What we are interested in here is why that helicopter did not try to land in another and more favorable place. Namely, the helicopter was sent hastily and in violation of military-aviation procedures to Novi Pazar, in order to transport the endangered baby to a hospital where she would be given the help that they could not give her there. Road access was impossible due to a landslide, although the ambulance was initially headed towards Kraljevo, where help was possible. The next medical institution with such capacities was in Kragujevac, perhaps also in Niš. All three places were closer to the take-off point than Belgrade, and the weather conditions for landing were more favorable.

However, the helicopter crew was ordered to fly to Surcin, where there was occasional thick fog, so passenger aircraft flights were delayed and diverted that night. The order for that flight was issued outside the command procedures, and the helicopter unit of the MUP of Serbia rejected the task as impossible due to the weather circumstances, which - as will be seen - was quite reasonable. Therefore, it was not time to fly that night.

PREJUDICATED: Nevertheless, for some reason that we will never know after this decision of the Higher Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, the helicopter crew was ordered to land in Surčin in any way they know how. Above all, it is interesting that from the official aviation VHF and UHF radio communication, which is normally recorded, the real reason for the insistence to land on Surčin cannot be discerned. What is missing in this whole story are the contents of the conversation between the commander of the aircraft and the unknown persons via GSM cell phone during those critical hours of the night. For some reason, that link was also used, which is not recorded - or is it recorded, but the cat ate it? In more than a year, the Prosecution was able to obtain at least a list of calls made to and from the GSM phone of Major Mehić and his comrades from the helicopter crew, if not the contents, which they were told not to record, because the people are not under the measures and there is no court order. The listings, however, exist, so it was possible to see who talked to whom and when, and from which base station area. Afterwards, they could ask some people - the survivors - what was discussed at the critical moments, so we would all be a little smarter.

Since none of that was done when it should have been, Prime Minister Vučić appeared angry and angry at one of his contentious press conferences and shouted that he "doesn't give Gasić and Lončar", which no one asked him for. That was his response to suspicions and allusions in some media that the helicopter was deliberately and against all reason aimed at Surčin, in order to score political points, at any cost. Hence the violations of command procedures and requests to land under impossible circumstances. Vučić's message - in addition to the five-day-old baby of a "different religion" - was also that, well, they killed themselves to save the child, and now they are being blamed; and if they had not raised that helicopter, then they would have been criticized for not doing so; etc.

Then Toma Nikolić, El Presidente, awarded the fallen crew with medals for bravery, etc. Later, stories were released in the regime media that a significant dose of alcohol was found in the blood of the dead crew, which - we now see - was a prelude to this current outcome. Namely, it turns out that the knights of the Order of Courage were flying drunk, and that the weather conditions - as has been claimed many times - were quite good, but they were not, as we know. After all, we haven't seen the autopsy findings, and even if we had, no one would have believed them after all; it wouldn't be the first time... Even if the pilots were completely sober, in those weather circumstances they had no chance. Under normal circumstances of full or at least partial visibility, even drunks would descend.

It is easy for us now - and especially for the High Prosecutor's Office - to consider that story, the direction of which was determined by Prime Minister Vučić immediately, before anything was known. The man came out, shouted, did not give Gašić and Lončar (no one even asked him for them, we will repeat) and in general he was feigned anger and indignation, according to his custom. If only he had kept quiet, it would have been easier for all of us. He also shouted hysterically on September 24, 2014, on the day of the Pride Parade and a week ago around Savamala. In all three cases, the prime minister drastically violated the presumption of innocence and issued unimpeachable verdicts even before the end (even the beginning) of the pre-investigation procedure. And then what should the judiciary do?

VUCIC'S METHOD: The first to hit are the prosecutors, as usual. The police can do everything, hand over the results to the prosecutor's office and then wash their hands and say - that's all they have, we did ours. The prosecution has two options: to draw up an indictment and submit it to the court - or to conclude that there is no room for prosecution and along the way accuse the police of being sloppy in gathering evidence, which often happens and is not without basis in many cases, as well as accusations from the police that the prosecution listens to orders from above, instead of working conscientiously.

The Prosecutor's Office has its own specific institute called the mandatory instruction of a senior officer; the prosecutor must act according to the instructions, and then he can make an official note about it, if he does not agree, and include it in the file. According to the hierarchy of subordination, which is hard and inflexible in prosecutor's offices, the top is in the Republic Prosecutor's Office, with Ms. Zaga Dolovac. As far as we know, the High Prosecutor's Office was trying - we don't know how persistently, but it still wouldn't help them - to find out details about that fateful night of the helicopter crash. In the end, a decision was made as at the beginning of the text: there is no room for criminal prosecution. Two generals were punished by a ban on promotion in the disciplinary procedure and - a donkey was eaten by a wolf.

It is no longer about the death of seven people (of various "religions") and the loss of one of the Army's two helicopters; this is about something - if possible - much more significant in the long term: about the rule of law, about legality and about the responsibility of the executive power, which can bring much worse consequences for all of us. If it is already clear in the prosecutor's office that the supreme authority must be listened to as soon as something is said, there is nothing to rule of law. The duty of the executive power would be to refrain from making indictments and judgments before even such "institutions of the system" - of any kind - act on the subject, and not to direct these "institutions" immediately in a given direction beyond which it is better not to they try.

The way the story ended with the helicopter crash is an indication of how the other affairs will end: it is almost certain that the story with the gendarmes and the Vučić-Mali brothers will end somewhere far in the future, perhaps in the statute of limitations; Savamala will hardly make it to the prosecutor's office, and let the ducks quack to their heart's content. We will see for Mišković, as well as for Milan Bek: in both cases, the helpers are tried without the perpetrators. All those affairs will eventually come to Strasbourg, but don't let the donkey walk to the green grass. The method of this government and Aleksandar Vučić is to bury one affair with another, all in the hope that it will be forgotten.

Well, it won't.