Prosecutor: Fight Against Corruption Not Real

Bojana Savovic (BetaPhoto/Media Center Belgrade)

Public Prosecutor Bojana Savovic said on June 5 that there was no real fight against corruption in Serbia and added that "arrests are not the road to justice."

In an interview with the Vreme weekly she said that prosecutors did not state in their annual reports how many binding sentences were brought, for which crimes and how much property had been permanently seized.

She said that a part of the judiciary was still showing signs of life and did not want to work according to the dictate of the executive authorities hence the creation of an informal group called, Defending the Profession. "I am proud of my colleagues who are the last wall of defense of society. The form of self-organization by judges and prosecutors from the entire country is a reaction to the lack of reactions by the judiciary and the High Prosecutorial Council, and especially to the non-reacting or inadequate reaction of the Commissioner for Independence," Savovic added.

She said that some bodies were not reacting "because of poor staff choices." "I hope that the entire expert and layman public will place the right significance on the election of these bodies, because we have already seen how the election of 'prominent attorneys,' which no one knows when and how they distinguished themselves, has backfired," the prosecutor said.