Tomanovic Law Office Wants to Know How Informer Obtained Recording of Surveilled Students

Zdenko Tomanovic (Photo: Youtube / Printscreen)

After the pro-government tabloid Informer had released the audio recording of a conversation among students at a cafe, the Tomanovic Law Office requested the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade on Aug. 24 to explain why “the regime’s propaganda outlet made a public spectacle of part of the prosecution case file", using an audio format not even available to the defense.

"It would not be the first time in the history of totalitarianism that meetings of young people are monitored and recorded in cafes and at universities, and their photographs published, but the networking venture by propaganda agents and state authorities for the purposes of an unlawful attack on the rights of young people carries a worrying and socially dangerous risk," the law office said in a press release.

The Tomanovic lawyers also said that the publication of photographs and excerpts from the conversation taken out of context was not only "a futile attempt to create divisions within the student movement, but also a direct threat to their safety simply because of their courage to fight for the truth, the rule of law and accountability in running the state and its institutions."

The Informer portal published on Aug. 23 a recording of an alleged meeting of students at a cafe in Novi Sad. Investigative news portal KRIK previously reported that, in lawsuits against him over false claims and private materials published by Informer, the Informer editor-in-chief, Dragan Vucicevic’s defense was that confidential information had been provided by the Security Intelligence Agency (BIA).