Law Professor: Serbian Prosecutor’s Offices Protecting Corrupt Politicians, Tycoons

Vanja Bajovic, PrtScr: NOVA S

Vanja Bajovic, a professor of the Belgrade University School of Law, said on Feb. 5 that Serbia is failing in its fight against systemic corruption because the prosecution is shielding corrupt politicians and moguls instead of investigating them.

In an interview for BETA, Bajovic maintained that Serbia’s prosecutor’s offices do not operate as independent institutions but rather as an extension of the executive branch of government, where prosecutors who dare to do their job “are removed, silenced or transferred.”

“Corruption is destroying us at every level – economically, socially and morally. People are losing faith in [state] institutions, public resources are being usurped by politically-suitable, incompetent individuals, while the people are left without basic services or the ability to make a living. Through rigged tenders, fictitious jobs and fake projects, public funds are syphoned into private pockets,” the professor explained.

According to her, the prosecutor’s offices do not launch proceedings against those close to the regime, judges judge selectively and the law is applied differentially – stringently against ordinary people and leniently if one holds power.

The public is losing faith in the state, she added, because if the courts do not go after top-level criminals, there is no fear of punishment at lower levels either.