Mr. Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, said that the text published in today's edition of the "Press" daily under the heading: "Man of great Confidence; released Bagzi, employed by Mr. Sabic" was completely untrue and utterly malevolent..
Saying that the "Press" daily was abused for another of a number of increasingly aggressive actions the aim of which is to jeopardize the reputation of the institution of the Commissioner and to make its operations more difficult, the Commissioner reminded that actions such as open calls to disobey his decisions, malevolent, untrue and unprofessional comments on such decisions, unlawful decrease of salaries of the Commissioner's assistants and even attempts to denounce the Commissioner with foreign ambassadors as a person whose activities threaten the fight against corruption and organized crime were becoming increasingly frequent, not to mention other, even more base attempts.
Emphasizing that, in spite of all that, the institution managed by him would continue to insist on the exercise of rights of the public and consistent implementation of the law, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:
"I have heard yesterday for the first time the statement that Mr. Aco Stojev, employed at the Commissioner's Office, "released Bagzi from a prison" from a "Press" journalist. I told her it seemed quite impossible to me, but that I would talk about that with Mr. Stojev and I did. After that, I told her the following, true facts. Mr. Aco Stojev was once involved in proceedings against the "famous" Bagzi immediately after Mr. Bagzi was arrested in the incident near the Belgrade Arena, but only for a very short period of time, literally for a couple of hours. During that period of time he took no procedural action, such as rejection of a petition for institution of criminal proceedings, proposal for release from detention etc. On the contrary, he requested continuation of the investigation. Even after Mr. Stojev's short participation in the proceedings ended, Mr. Bagzi remained in detention and Mr. Stojev had no influence on his further status.
Nevertheless, the "Press" daily has published lies. At the very least, in this way it enabled the public to see a picture of the Serbian Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection next to a picture of a hardened criminal, who is now a protected witness, garnished with the "delicate" heading – "Man of great Confidence". Who is that? And of whose confidence?
In all likelihood, Mr. Aco Stojev is just "collateral damage". But regardless of that, the ruthlessness with which the integrity and peace of a decent man and hard worker and his family was threatened must in no way be underestimated.
I have no doubt that people who try to hamper functioning of the institution I represent are responsible for this and a number of other actions I already mentioned. I believe that the Commissioner is not the only target of such actions; on the contrary, the Ombudsman has recently faced the same thing, as did the President of the Anti-corruption Council before him. I am sure that other independent institutions which endeavour to perform their duties properly, in accordance with the law, also face or will face similar situations.
That is why I have no doubt that the top government officials themselves must deal with the following question – may we and can we, without greatly damaging the reputation and functioning of the state, tolerate the fact that people who use such means of "political play" include also those who are appointed to important government functions?"
