Serbian Prosecutors Demand Answers on Case Reassignment, Charge Downgrade

A group of judges and prosecutors in Serbia, operating under the banner "Odbrana struke" (Defense of the Profession), has publicly demanded answers from Nenad Stefanović, the chief prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade. Their core concern is the reassignment of a case involving Miodrag Selaković and the subsequent downgrading of the charges against him.

The group specifically questions the grounds for removing the case from one prosecutor and assigning it to another. Following this reassignment, the charge against Selaković was reportedly downgraded from attempted aggravated murder to causing general danger. Selaković is accused of hitting and seriously injuring 90-year-old Veroljub Sarić with his car near the Faculty of Law in Belgrade while paying respects to victims of a tragedy in Novi Sad.

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If the reason for taking away the case is that it is a detention case, and prosecutor Dragana Danilović is on vacation, have all other detention cases handled by the same prosecutor been reassigned (given to work) to other prosecutors, and if not, why not?

"Odbrana struke" highlighted that if the case was reassigned due to the prosecutor handling it being on vacation, they question why other high-priority cases handled by the same prosecutor have not also been reassigned. They emphasized that it is in the public interest and the interest of the judiciary to eliminate any doubt that certain cases are being handled under different rules than those applied to all other citizens.

The judges and prosecutors stated that to preserve public trust in the legality and transparency of the public prosecutor's office, they expect a prompt response from the chief public prosecutor to these questions.

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To preserve public trust in the legality and transparency of the work of the public prosecutor's office, we expect the chief public prosecutor to answer these questions without delay.