Supreme Public Prosecution Office: Legal Amendments That Would Shutter Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office Unacceptable

PHOTO: PIXABAY

The senior staff of the Supreme Public Prosecution Office of Serbia on Nov. 24 rejected as "unacceptable" the announced amendments to a set of judicial acts whose provisions include shutting down the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime.

In a press release, they said that the proposed amendments were "in opposition with the international standards reached to date in combating organized crime and corruption."

The statement warned that "the inappropriate, tendentious and unauthorized statements by representatives of legislative and executive authorities, certain politicians and other public figures, which use derogatory terms for public prosecutors prosecuting specific cases, labelling them even as perpetrators of felonies, constantly tear down and seriously damage the reputation and authority of public prosecutor's offices and generate distrust among citizens toward this state body."

"Certain media outlets contribute to this with their unprofessional reporting and by publicly commenting on specific criminal proceedings, airing unverified and incorrect information, which jeopardizes not just the presumption of innocence, but the lawful work of public prosecutors, creating an entirely incorrect impression about the work of public prosecutor's offices as a whole," the statement read.

The statement went on to state that, in accordance with their legally defined jurisdiction, prosecutor's offices would launch proceedings "against anyone who acts to break the law."