Rodoljub Sabic(Photo:Print Screen You Tube)
The first Serbian commissioner for information of public importance, the lawyer Rodoljub Sabic, said on March 10 that the Office of the Prosecutor for Organized Crime was late to announce that it had allowed the release of morbid photographs of victims involved in an ongoing investigation at a news briefing held by highest-ranking state officials.
In a comment for BETA, the lawyer described the announcement as "lame," cautioning that it was an attempt "to justify the government move that was wrong in more ways than one." "It is difficult to explain why the prosecution office has decided to speak up now, after listening to professional appeals for days on end that the release clashed with several laws," Sabic said.
The lawyer underlined that the reason the Office had offered, that "the purpose of releasing the photographs was to identify the bodies," was debatable at least.
"Hypothetically, releasing a photo to identify a victim might be an option in principle, but it is indeed difficult to find such a precedent, even if the search for it went back a few decades. It's not only extravagant that a press conference by state leaders be used for the purposes of the release, but it's also very odd that the reason the Office has offered wasn't mentioned at all," Sabic said to a BETA journalist.
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