Get Going for Change Files Criminal Complaints Against Current, Former Parliament Speakers

BETAPHOTO/Nikola Todorovic

On Oct. 7, the Get Going for Change movement submitted criminal complaints against Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic and former parliament speaker Vladimir Orlic, over their consistent failure to add to the Parliament’s agenda the 2022 people’s initiative for a legal ban on lithium mining.

The complaints list multiple crimes which the Higher Prosecutor’s Office could prosecute, including abuse of office, embezzlement, preventing political association, unethical conduct of a public service employee and trading in influence, the movement’s leader, Savo Manojlovic, told a press conference.

Manojlovic recalled that Get Going for Change submitted the People’s initiative for a law banning lithium exploitation in May 2022 – a document the National Assembly was legally obligated to vote on within six months.

At the time of submission, Ivica Dacic was parliament speaker, but there are no grounds for submitting a complaint against him, Manojlovic said, explaining that Dacic could only be interviewed.

The goal of the criminal complaints now lodged against Brnabic and Orlic, Manojlovic added, is to create a “written record” and, therefore – should it be determined that the law was indeed violated – grounds for Serbia to avoid losing the inevitable arbitration proceedings Rio Tinto will launch once its mining project in Serbia is scrapped.