Judiciary Applies Different Criteria in Cases of Violence Against Protesters

Protests under the slogan, "We Want Elections," took place in over 30 Serbian cities on June 1.(BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

The practice in Serbia's judiciary is such that cases of violence against protesting students and citizens are treated differently, even in completely identical situations, while the treatment often depends on who the defendant is, who the defendant's attorney is, or who the prosecutor is, even though the criterion should be the same, said participants in a debate titled "Who Runs Us over, Who Protects Us?" held in Novi Sad.

A prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade and member of the Judicial Research Center's steering committee, Bojana Savovic, said that such toying with the judiciary was very dangerous and announced the preparation of an analysis of deviations in qualifications in so-called runover cases.

She also said that there was a small number of prosecutors completely loyal to the authorities, but warned that they were very dangerous and ready for anything, and would "always get those interesting cases where something needs to be dealt with."

Kraljevo Local Front association activist Predrag Vostinic said that citizens had no right to collective, i.e. social naivety, in which they would forever be wondering who was running them over, and paraphrased a statement by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic: "Well, you're not going to accuse a man who was driving down the highway and didn't do anything, are you? Splash some cold water on your face."

"That man runs people over! We have no right to be either collectively or socially naive and wonder why the institutions are not working. Who is running people over? The one who promoted running over and agreed with it, who told us that the remedy for that is cold water," stressed Vostinic.