Sabic: Ease with which Citizen's Right Are Being Violated Unacceptable

Sabic: Large Number of Citizens See Election Campaign Activities as Privacy Violation

Attorney Rodoljub Sabic said on Oct. 13 that it was not a good thing to view the European Commission's poor Serbian progress report only as or mostly through the lens of failed policies on accession to the EU and that people should be worried by "the large and constantly growing gap between the legal and factual situation in all areas."

"What is especially unacceptable is the ease with which citizens' rights are being violated while the questions that inevitably arise from this are either being ignored by the authorities or the authorities are offering obviously untenable explanations," Sabic told BETA and gave several examples.

"Months after the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Authority requested all information regarding transactions and the state of accounts of a large number of journalists and civil sector representatives, who frequently criticize the government, there has been no explanation and no one has been called to account for this legally scandalous procedure. The authorities only said that it was a routine activity, a normal check," he added.

Sabic said that the law did not recognize such a thing as a "normal" check and that "requests of this size demand the explicit existence of 'reasonable doubt" with regard to money laundering and terrorist financing."