The Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime (TOK) is constantly being targeted by the authorities due to several cases of special public interest in which it acts. The final blow was not directly dealt by state officials, but by another prosecutorial institution. N1’s interlocutors believe that the authorities tactically decided that the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade would react in the case of the Lucic-Miller video, because it has control over it.
The pressure that the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime has been under for months is growing stronger, so much so that the European Commission and the head of the European Union delegation to Serbia have also spoken out. They are demanding that the state reduces political interference and unacceptable influence on the judiciary and prosecutor’s office, but also strengthen the TOK mandate.
“I’m telling you that you are a corrupt gang. The worst criminals,” said President Aleksandar Vucic.
“They are not only an organized criminal group, they are an autoimmune disease in Serbia,” said Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic.
“Come on, criminal gang,” were also the words of President Vucic.
“That organized crime gang led by Mladen Nenadic – that is, the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime,” Selakovic said.
“These changes are happening quickly and I’m not interested in anyone’s reactions at all,” Vucic said in another statement.
The president is not interested in what anyone will say about the planned termination of TOK’s independence and placing it under the jurisdiction of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office (VJP) in Belgrade. And that very prosecutor’s office, which they say is the only one under Vucic’s complete control, is the latest in a series to target TOK. The reason – the handling of the case of the controversial recording of the conversation between Telekom Srbije CEO Vladimir Lucic and United Group CEO Stan Miller.
“We do not see in relation to which persons, which event, which actions and the possible qualification of a criminal offense the TOK could be competent to act,” the VJP stated .
“That statement is in itself infantile, but it also shows the ignorance of the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Belgrade Public Prosecutor’s Office, because this is about influence peddling, but there is a reasonable suspicion that it is an organized criminal group formed by Aleksandar Vucic with the aim of shutting down objective media, and there are Lucic, Miller and at least 10 to 15 other people,” according to lawyer Aleksandar Olenik.
While TOK is dealing with what is heard in the recording, namely the plan to weaken independent media in Serbia at Vucic’s request, the VJP is investigating the possible misuse of the recording. Lawyer Olenik believes that the VJP, led by prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic, is actually conducting damage control.
“Vucic has no intention of calling and participating in elections with objective media. He cannot influence TOK, he cannot destroy it, disband it or merge it, because the EU does not allow that. The only thing left for him is to try to take over and shut down the case through VJT and Nenad Stefanović,” says Olenik.
And before the Lučić-Miller case , TOK came under fire for the “Canopy collapse” and “General Staff complex” cases, in which a former and a current minister were under investigation. An indictment was recently filed against Nikola Selakovic and three other individuals, and the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime is still investigating whether anyone else participated in the crimes with them.
Source: N1
