Law Professor: Prosecutor’s Office is Like a Monastic Order Sworn to Silence

Professor of Law Vesna Rakic Vodinelic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Professor of Law Vesna Rakic Vodinelic has said that the State Prosecutor’s Office conducts itself like a monastic order sworn to silence, and added that State Prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac will go down in judicial history as the founder of this “order of silent officials.”

Speaking for the NIN weekly, Rakic Vodinelic said that if Serbia had a truly functional prosecution, at least one of its prosecutors would feel compelled to react to Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Sapic’s announcement that he would not open EuroPride 2022 but would certainly be opening the Days of Family.

“No one reacted then, and no one reacted a month later when a religious procession against EuroPride was organized [in the capital], where Bishop Nikanor of Banat, while deeply lamenting not owning a weapon, did what he could unarmed: cast an anathema on all [of the event’s] participants,” the law professor said.

She further stressed that Bishop Nikanor’s verbal attacks and open call to violence have the hallmarks of inciting hatred – both ethnically-based and aimed at a sexual minority – which represent criminal offenses.