Unacceptable behavior of the Prosecutor's Office
ExpiredDistrict Public Prosecutor's Office has in reply to the Independent Association of the Journalists of Serbia, and later to the Commissioner for Information of Public Interest, who have requested data about the death of the lady journalist Dada Vujasinovic used untrue information, stated for “Danas” daily Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic.
We have to remind you that the Public Prosecutor's Deputy Tomislav Kilibarda in his reply sent to NUNS (Independent Association of the Journalists of Serbia) claims that according to the Article 170 of the Law on Criminal Proceedings the NUNS does not belong to the circle of individuals to whom the District Prosecutor's Office can give information regarding the work on the case. Sabic considers that the attitude of the Prosecutor's Office is untenable both from the legal and every other point. Completely legitimate request of NUNS, states the Commissioner, the Prosecutor's Office has declined in the way which is illegitimate both regarding processing and regarding material-legal sense, referring to the provision of Article 170 of Criminal Proceedings Act which is in the specific case irrelevant, having in mind the provisions of the Article 4 of the Law on Free Access to Information.
According to Sabic's words the letter from the Prosecutor's Office represents a try to , post festum, mystify the preliminary criminal procedure and official secret. It is also disputable that in the answer of the Commissioner to the District Prosecutor's Office, they claim that they have replied to his request already on 16th August, which is not true, said Sabic. In the reply to Commissioner the Prosecutor's Office has as a proof enclosed the copy of the mail delivery receipt, but addressed to the Belgrade Human Rights Center, which is not related to the correspondence between the Commissioner and Prosecutor's Office .
- Bearing in mind that, according to the mentioned provision of the Law on Free Access to Information, the NUNS, or anybody else is not obliged to prove existence of any other Importance, as the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance I have passed based on the appeal of NUNS, a Decision, by which I have ordered the Prosecutor's Office that the requested information should be made available to the public. Although according to the Law the Decision of the Commissioner is obliging for the Prosecutor's Office, the Prosecutor's Office did not act according to the order. The very fact that the body like Prosecutor's Office ignores the decision of the state body in charge is more than worrisome. Still more worrying are some other things. For instance, the fact that the Prosecutor's Office is using in the official correspondence obviously untrue facts, even such facts that a person with slightly less good intentions would label as something verging on forgery - points out Sabic.
Namely, the Public Prosecutor's Deputy Tomislav Kilibarda answered to the Minister of Justice that the District Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade has informed NUNS "that the procedure is in the phase of preliminary criminal proceedings, that the perpetrator of possible criminal act regarding the death of Radoslava Vujasinovic has not been discovered... that the other data related to information linked to the preliminary criminal procedure, which represent official secret can not be delivered". The same letter clearly states that the requested information have been delivered to the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, one month earlier than the Commissioner's Office has passed the Decision on the Obligation to Deliver Information.
However, in reply to NUNS and the Commissioner, which the journalist of “Danas” daily had a chance to see, not one word is said about the preliminary criminal proceedings, or about the perpetrator of possible criminal activity, or official secret.
It is indicative that the Ministry of Justice has sent all the letters related to the mentioned case to the Government of Serbia, except one document - letter of the Commissioner for Information to the Minister of Justice, in which Sabic warns that the Prosecutor's Office is using lies.
- I hope that behind such behavior, maybe even subconsciously, lies the intention to keep one's exclusive, untouchable position that excludes any kind of obligation towards the public, and not something else. In any case, I consider it completely absurd, that today in the 21st century, not only Prosecutor's Office, but anyone in charge of some kind of public power, might consider that after 12 years of work or lack of work on some subject, one is not obliged to give any information about that to the public, except - that the case has not been completed - evaluates Sabic. R. Femic
