Informal Group of Judges and Prosecutors: High Prosecutorial Council Acted Contrary to the Venice Commission Recommendations 

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The informal group of judges and prosecutors of Serbia Odbrana Struke (Defense of the Profession) on May 5 said that the High Prosecutorial Council failed to act in accordance with the recommendations of the Venice Commission when voting at its last session on secondment of public prosecutors, thus continuing the obstruction of sensitive procedures.

“Contrary to the recommendation that temporarily assigned prosecutors whose mandate has expired prematurely should be reinstated, the High Prosecutorial Council did not return to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime two prosecutors whose temporary assignments expired by law, while the members of the Council who did not vote did not provide any arguments for their position,” the group said in a statement. 

The group noted it is indicative that the two prosecutors are Irena Bjelos and Aleksandar Barac, who were in charge of the seizure of five tons of marijuana in the village of Konjuh near Krusevac on the property of an official of the Serbian Progressive Party, that is, in the case of the collapse of the concrete canopy at the Novi Sad Railway station. “This appears as a punishment for their legal and efficient handling of criminal proceedings that are not pleasing to the executive power, and represents continued obstruction of those proceedings.”

The informal group Odbrana Struke also said that “contrary to the explicit position of the Venice Commission and the professional community, the High Prosecutorial Council has continued the practice of temporary assignment of prosecutors from lower instance to higher instance prosecution offices.” 

“All this indicates that the goal of the members of the Council was not legal work or implementation of the Venice Commission recommendations, but the realization of an agreement reached between the prosecutor general and the justice minister, which clearly speaks of the attitude of the minister and also of the prosecutor general towards the opinion of the Venice Commission, as well as towards their colleagues and Serbia’s citizens,” the group said.