Attorney: It Is Legitimate To Defend Yourself Against Injustice in the Street

Zdenko Tomanovic (Photo: Youtube / Printscreen)

Attorney Zdenko Tomanovic said on Oct. 24 that the right of citizens to publicly demonstrate disagreement or different opinions in the public scene had become a human right and that the street was a public scene and a true one at that.

"In the street what is legitimate, natural and acceptable, logical and moral is allowed. It is legitimate to defend yourself from injustice. Public assembly as a basic right can be surprising in the form of demonstrations, protests, and the ferocity of resistance toward the illegal actions of the authorities, i.e. injustice, depends on the extent of that injustice, because as those knowledgeable in the law know the old saying goes - 'when law stops, tyranny begins," Tomanovic said in an interview with the Vreme weekly.

Speaking on the Jadar project, Tomanovic said that "it is important that the citizens have said 'you will not dig,' that this is the verdict of the people and an appeal is not possible." "This public verdict 'you will not dig' raises the moral capacity of all of society. The people's decision - that there will be no digging, above all has a moral and legal character.  People have recognized that to the political elite a healthy Serbia is a question of propaganda while to citizens it is their lives," Tomanovic said.

Asked to comment on a statement by Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic that the opposition was calling for civil war, Tomanovic said that prosecutors needed to precisely examine this claim, because the government was not authorized to push citizens into fear and panic, nor insecurity, recalling that provoking panic "exists" as a criminal offense.