Opposition Caucus Files Charges over Disappearance of People's Initiative

Radomir Lazovic (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

Green-Left Club caucus whip in Serbia's parliament Radomir Lazovic said on March 23 that their legal team had filed charges against those responsible for hiding the People's Initiative for Banning the Mining of Lithium and Boron which is a violation of the law and Constitution of Serbia it said.

He said that charges were raised against previous parliament speaker Ivica Dacic as well as Veljko Odalovic, who was secretary general at the time, Speaker Vladimir Orlic, Secretary General Srdan Smiljanic, as well as Helena Zaric Kovacevic, chair of the Committee on Constitutional Questions and Legislation.

"The purpose of the charges is to expand the search for the people's initiative. Someone purposely and with full awareness has hid 38,000 signatures by citizens and we no longer doubt this. It was not lost and there was no procedural mistake etc. but a glaring violation of the law," Lazovic told a news conference.

He stressed that MPs had established that the initiative never left the registry nor the relevant committee nor the ministry. He added that those who were the most responsible for collecting the signatures, the Alliance of Ecological Organizations of Serbia and the Get Going for Change organization, were again prevented from speaking in parliament's hall.