"In the future, before you decide whether to file criminal charges against someone or any report and before you call the police, for anything, you will first report everything to Željka."
This is how an associate of the head of the Prosecutor's Office, Nenad Stefanović, went door-to-door in the Department for Suppression of Corruption in the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office (VJT) in Belgrade and passed on a verbal message. Željka Nikolaidis, to whom everything should be reported, is the head of the Department, known to the public as the prosecutor who drank coffee from a mug with the BIA logo while interrogated Slobodan Milenkovic, the police chief who exposed Jovanjica, according to the indictment, the largest marijuana plantation in Europe.
After this verbal order, the deputy prosecutors were taken aback, it actually meant that they were deprived of even the minimum of independence in their work and their meritoriousness to act was completely revoked. By that act, the prosecutors, who will soon become the holders of the public prosecutor's office due to judicial reforms, have actually been reduced to the level of the lowest trainees who do not decide on anything.
Terminations due to requirements to comply with the law
Out of the 22 deputy prosecutors in the Department for Suppression of Corruption of the Belgrade Public Prosecutor's Office, one deputy, Jasmina Paunović, raised her voice and wrote on the vjber group of that Department, among other things, that such an oral request is against the Constitution and the Law: "This is a drastic and dangerous change in our behavior , previously because of this, a collegium had to be convened, to issue a mandatory instruction. This is a deliberate violation of Article 155, paragraph 1 and Article 162 of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, which guarantees prosecutors independence in their work. Also, Article 5 of the Law on Public Prosecutor's Office guarantees independence in the work of both the public prosecutor and his deputy... This leads to the commission of a criminal act against the official duty by not performing or exceeding the given powers."
The message of experienced prosecutor Jasmine Paunović, who still has two years until retirement, that she wants to work according to the Constitution and the Law, spread like wildfire, first through the Palace of Justice, and then reached the Parliament, where it became the topic of the day.
Stefanović's first deputy for corruption, Brankica Marić, urgently convened the collegium. What was supposed to be a legal dispute between the prosecutors turned, according to those present, into something like a street fight when the gang leader from the neighborhood threatens the neighbors. Prosecutor Paunović also wrote to the State Council of Prosecutors about what the meeting looked like.
Journalists from the "Vreme" portal had access to that document, which states: "I tried to explain to him (Nenad Stefanović) why I reacted to the existing instruction, so that the prosecutor, with all the strength of his left hand, on which he had a watch, hit the desk in front of him and with a crash, yelling at me, said – 'Shut up, now I'm talking!' I was shocked, taken aback by such an inappropriate, unprofessional and humiliating reaction... He mentioned that if we want independence, we can go to the Court and be judges, which was supported by his deputy Brankica Marić... He also mentioned that, whether we like it or not, we can't do anything, because he was elected for 6 years and will stay there."
Prosecutor Paunović was supported at the meeting by prosecutors Bojana Savović, Dragana Pešić, Radmila Jovanović and Ivan Sunarić.
About ten days after that meeting with the prosecutor Paunović and Savović were transferred to another department, and all the corruption cases they worked on were taken away from them.
Until now, he is from the Department for Suppression of Corruption of the VJT in Belgrade seven of the most experienced prosecutors were transferred, it is mainly about those who rebelled that they do not want to work outside the regulations according to verbal orders or about those who worked on media and politically sensitive subjects. After the latest transfers, fourteen prosecutors are now working in that department who were sent from the Basic Prosecutor's Offices and only eight were selected for those positions through competitions.
In addition to having no experience working on complicated cases in the domain of corruption, the appointed prosecutors are also in a strictly subordinate position, considering that if they oppose the first prosecutor of Belgrade, Stefanović, they will automatically be returned to the Basic Prosecutor's Office for incomparably lower salaries.
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