Attorney Sabic: Prosecutor’s Office Must’ve Reacted to Reports of Unlawful Registrations in Place of Residence Registers

Rodoljub Sabic (Beta/Milan Obradovic)

Attorney Rodoljub Sabic, the chair of the Civil Committee for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, on Jan. 16 said that from the prospect of electoral and human rights in general, a large number of reports about unlawful registrations in place of residence and voters registers fully upheld the reason for major concerns.

In a statement delivered to media outlets, Sabic said that it was unacceptable that such events had not been meet not only with adequate but practically no response from the relevant bodies, despite a large and growing number of reports on the extent of violations of a number of laws, including the Law on permanent address and temporary residence, the Law on the unified register of voters, and the Law on local elections.

“To have massive registrations in the place of residence register circumventing laws and standard procedures was not possible without involvement of relevant ministries, that is, the bodies and people whose task is to ensure consistent implementation of laws. This means that they placed their duty of protecting public interest and the rights of citizens under the command of political interests of the incumbent regime,” Sabic stressed.

He also said that according to available information, the volume of unlawful registrations in the place of residence registers was so large that it pointed to reasonable suspicion of the existence of an organized group that had committed a large number of continued criminal offences under Articles 155 and 156 of the Criminal Code. “This is an issue which has long ago required ex officio reaction of the Prosecutor’s Office. By failing to do so, the Prosecutor’s office has seriously erred in its duty, laws and the rights of citizens,” Sabic specified.

“In the current circumstances, the purpose and consequences of unlawful registrations in the place of residence registers primarily involved violations of electoral rights,” Sabic noted, but added that “it must not be forgotten that they in parallel presume potential violations of a number of other human rights.”