Belgrade Prosecutor’s Office: Mrdic Now Conducting Smear Campaign

Ugljesa Mrdic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

On Dec. 15, the Third Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade denied recent allegations by Serbian National Assembly member Ugljesa Mrdic, stating that none of the prosecutors in that office had been issued orders on how to act in any of its cases because the law did not allow for it.

Mrdic, the chairman of the Committee on Justice, State Administration and Local Government, has filed criminal reports against four prosecutors, alleging that they baselessly arrested and processed a man who was ultimately convicted of threatening the safety of Prosecutor General Zagorka Dolovac.

The Third Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade said that Mrdic "has moved from a campaign of undue influence into a smear campaign, which has escalated into false reporting of a felony."

Addressing the case over which the MP filed against the prosecutors, the press release went on to say that the convicted man had given a full confession of having threatened Dolovac on May 29, after which the public prosecutor made an agreement with him in the presence of his legal counsel in which he pled guilty to the crime of threatening a person's security.

Branko Stamenkovic, head of the High Prosecutorial Council and a public prosecutor at the Supreme Public Prosecution Office, said in a press release that with his latest statements Mrdic was attempting to influence him in his work, while his lawsuit was an attempt to defame him, and that he would therefore sue Mrdic for defamation and file a criminal report against him for false reporting.