Sasa DragojloBelgradeBIRNFebruary 24, 202312:26Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office dismisses claims that it moved prosecutors handling sensitive corruption case in state energy enterprise for political reasons, calling it ‘false news’ .
Justice Palace in Belgrade, Serbia. Photo: BIRN
The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade has denied claims of moving a head and deputy prosecutors in a corruption case in EPS – a state-owned electric utility power company – from their positions for political reasons. It called the claims “false news” and “diverting attention from the decisive fight against corruption”.
“Due to the spread of false news by [opposition] MP Marinika Tepic, which has caused public anxiety, we point out that the deputy prosecutor who partially acted in this case was not ‘removed’ but assigned to the Department for General Crime,” the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday.
“The EPS case, like all other cases that are dealt with, is not the case of a specific deputy, but of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, which implements it in cooperation with other state bodies that carry out criminal prosecutions,” it added.
Police on Wednesday arrested six people suspected of having lost EPS $7.5 million during the performance of works at the thermal power plant Kostolac B.
A day later, the prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, Bojana Savovic, who has been conducting an investigation into EPS for more than a year, was moved from her position.
N1 TV and opposition MP Tepic later published that another prosecutor in the case, Jasmina Paunovic, had also been dismissed from the case.
After the Public Prosecutor’s Office claimed that they asked to be moved from their positions, Savovic came out publicly denying it.
“The allegations that I expressed a desire to work in another department are incorrect, and the prosecution’s allegations that I delayed the case in any way are incorrect,” Savovic told N1 on Thursday.
“It is also unclear if, according to their allegations I was delaying the work on the case, why they were waiting for me to arrest persons, so that they could then transfer me to another department,” she said.
The Association of Prosecutors of Serbia has backed Savovic and Petrovic, claiming that “when informing the public, the interests of morality must be taken into account – as the Rulebook on Administration in the Public Prosecutor’s Offices says”.
“Female colleagues have never asked to be transferred to another department,” the Association stated on Twitter.
Appeal Court Judge Miodrag Majic also criticised the move on Twitter, saying that their dismissals represented a “herald of new times” in terms of pressure on the judiciary.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
