Judges’ Association of Serbia: Vucic’s Statement on Prosecutors Is Interference into Judicial Competences

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Serbian President Aleksandra Vucic’s statement that public prosecutors and police officers would be replaced unless they protected the order and law, could be interpreted as nothing else but interference into judicial competences, which was contrary to independence of the judiciary and public prosecutor’s offices, granted in the Constitution, the Judges’ Association of Serbia said in a statement on March 25.

According to the statement, no one, but the bodies defined by the law and in accordance with the procedures defined by the law, is authorized to assess whether judicial bodies operate lawfully or not, that is, whether they act in accordance with the Constitution and law. The Association also said that election and discharge of individuals to judicial posts “is the exclusive remit of judicial Councils.”

“Office holders in all three branches of government (legislative, executive and judicial), are obliged to discharge their entrusted duties conscientiously and responsibly, within the competences prescribed by the law for their respective branch of government, with the obligation to also refrain from interfering with the competence of the other two branches of government, which, among other things, reflects the principle of separation of powers,” it is said in the statement.

Earlier, Vucic said he would request from state bodies to act everywhere and at all in a way that would protect the order and law, adding that anyone defying this instruction would be “replaced.” “Police officers who refuse to protect the order and law will be replaced, prosecutors who act the same way will be replaced,” Vucic said in Leskovac, a town in southern Serbia.