BELGRADE, May 31 (Hina) - A committee pressing for the release of Ivan Stambolic, a former Serbian president who was kidnapped almost two years ago, in August 2000, on Friday requested the establishment of the institution of a special
prosecutor, explaining the reason for the initiative was "the incomprehensible slowness and lack of interest of the public prosecutor in politically motivated murders or kidnapping".
BELGRADE, May 31 (Hina) - A committee pressing for the release of
Ivan Stambolic, a former Serbian president who was kidnapped almost
two years ago, in August 2000, on Friday requested the
establishment of the institution of a special prosecutor,
explaining the reason for the initiative was "the incomprehensible
slowness and lack of interest of the public prosecutor in
politically motivated murders or kidnapping". #L#
"The most frequent culprits, apart from the police and the
judiciary, are the prosecutors who, despite ample evidence, are
failing to react. It is therefore necessary to introduce the office
of special prosecutor who would intervene in cases when the public
prosecutor fails to do his job properly," said a committee member,
Biljana Kajganic.
Srdja Popovic, an attorney and committee member, warned that "the
political structures in Serbia are supporting the criminal
structure in the judiciary and police", which he said called for the
institution of special prosecutor, because the Serbian judiciary
"is always influenced by developments on the political scene", with
politicians "unlawfully exerting influence on the prosecution".
Committee member Dragoljub Todorovic said that the public
prosecutor in Serbia was not doing anything and accused Yugoslav
President Vojislav Kostunica of protecting a former head of the
state intelligence thus "preventing the police from finding Slavko
Curuvija's killers and Ivan Stambolic's kidnappers".
Reporter Slavko Curuvija was killed in the spring of 1999, during
the NATO operation in Yugoslavia. Former Serbian President Ivan
Stambolic was kidnapped in the Belgrade park Kosutnjak ahead of the
Yugoslav presidential election in August 2000. The public has
accused former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his wife
Mira Markovic of both crimes, and the new authorities have yet not
completed investigations into the two crimes and revealed the names
of the people who ordered and carried them out.
(hina) rml sb