{"id":20008,"date":"2016-05-17T07:07:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T05:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1\/inefficient-judiciary-intimidated-judges-and-prosecutors\/"},"modified":"2019-09-04T18:38:28","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T16:38:28","slug":"inefficient-judiciary-intimidated-judges-and-prosecutors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/inefficient-judiciary-intimidated-judges-and-prosecutors\/","title":{"rendered":"Inefficient Judiciary, Intimidated Judges and Prosecutors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe 27-page-long fourth report on the current state of judiciary, presented yesterday by the Anti-Corruption Council<\/em> at the Belgrade Media Centre, listed systemic issues in the Serbian justice system which led the Council to infer that the judiciary was dependent and inefficient.
\n\t 
\n\tReport\u2019s findings and recommendations were submitted to the Serbian Government in late March, but there\u2019s been no response whatsoever from either the Government or the Justice Ministry,\u201d a Council member, Jelisaveta Vasili\u0107<\/strong>, told the press conference.
\n\t 
\n\tAccording to the Council\u2019s report, it was precisely the Justice Ministry that fell short of the target the most as a lead entity in implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy and adoption of action plans, hence the report specified that the ministry \u201cdid not comprehend the importance of judiciary reform, fight against corruption and protection of fundamental human rights\u201d.<\/a>
\n\t 
\n\tThe Council cited as particularly troubling the fact that even those employed in judiciary were of the opinion that it lacked independence. Thus, 25% of judges, 33% of prosecutors and about 60% of lawyers are under the impression that judges and prosecutors are not independent and autonomous. At the same time, according to a survey by Ipsos polling agency, as many as 80% of citizens do not believe that judiciary is independent from politics and other groups with vested interests.
\n\t 
\n\tOne of the biggest problems, in the Council\u2019s view, is a constant pressure exerted by the executive branch of power on judiciary through media appearances, giving comments on pending cases, Prime Minister\u2019s public announcements of tough actions, Interior Minister\u2019s statements in public that the collected evidence was very strong and presenting polygraph test results as a crucial piece of evidence.
\n\t 
\n\t\u201cAny such statement amounts to an instruction and a warning as to what and how judges and prosecutors need to do in order to please those from the executive authorities since their very existence depends on them,\u201d reads the report.
\n\t 
\n\tThe Council cited specific examples to illustrate politicians\u2019 efforts to exercise influence such as when \u201cPrime Minister labels Miroslav Mi\u0161kovi\u0107<\/strong> as a criminal\u201d, or \u201cDragoslav Kosmajac<\/strong> as the biggest drug-dealer even though his criminal trial has not even started\u201d, or when PM \u201cspeaks about Sini\u0161a Mali<\/strong> who is not guilty of anything\u201d or comments in public on the helicopter case declaring that \u201cthere is nothing blameworthy in either the minister\u2019s or generals\u2019 actions\u201d, thereby absolving them in advance of any responsibility.<\/p>\n

\n\t 
\n\tJudges and Prosecutors Lack Protection<\/h2>\n

\n\t 
\n\tThe report stated that neither the High Judicial Council nor the State Prosecutorial Council, as supreme bodies of judicial authority, tended to the protection of judges and prosecutors from politicians, which was why they were intimidated.
\n\t 
\n\tMiodrag Maji\u0107<\/strong>, a judge with the Court of Appeals in Belgrade, said that in his experience, apathy and fear are prominent in judiciary. The reason for this, in his view, is that the majority of honest judges are \u201cfed up with everything\u201d since they know that if they step out of bounds, they will fall prey to tabloid press and smear campaigns.
\n\t 
\n\tAmong the examples of intimidation presented in the report, the Council singled out the case of judge Vladimir Vu\u010dini\u0107<\/strong>, former Belgrade Special Court president, who was the trial chamber\u2019s presiding judge in the criminal proceedings against Miroslav Mi\u0161kovi\u0107. Following his decision to return the passport to Mi\u0161kovi\u0107, judge Vu\u010dini\u0107 came under pressure to reverse his ruling and Belgrade Higher Court president threatened to relieve him of his post as the president of the department and send him back to work on regular criminal cases.
\n\t 
\n\tThe report also presented a court case involving, as one of the parties, Andrej Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong>, the brother of Prime Minister Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong>, where a recusal of the acting judge occurred.
\n\t 
\n\t\u201cThe court president recused the judge in a fast-track procedure over \u2018procrastination\u2019 even though this could not constitute a reason for the recusal in terms of the Civil Procedure Code, which effectively meant that the court president passed an unlawful ruling on the recusal,\u201d reads the Council\u2019s report.
\n\t 
\n\tAccording to the Council, these cases demonstrate that court presidents merely \u201cexecute what politicians say\u201d and the Council wonders \u201cwhether our country needs courts and prosecutors when we have executive and legislative authorities that bring charges, conduct proceedings, present evidence, evaluate them and adjudicate\u201d.
\n\t
\n\tIn Jelisaveta Vasili\u0107<\/strong>\u2019s words, judiciary will remain dependent, intimidated and ineffective as long as the executive authorities treat judiciary with condescension, denigration and intimidation.<\/p>\n

\n\t 
\n\tBad Laws and Confidential Contracts<\/h2>\n

\n\t 
\n\tIn its report the Council further maintained that bad laws, difficult to enforce and frequently amended, were being enacted in Serbia. Hence, e.g. the Judges Act was changed 12 times in last five years and this \u201cclearly showed that the bills were drafted by insufficiently skilled or inexperienced individuals incapable of adjusting the laws to real life\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t

\n\t\tJustice Ministry\u2019s Response<\/h2>\n\t

\n\t\tFollowing the Council\u2019s press conference, the Justice Ministry has issued a press release in response to the report on judiciary stating that significant efforts were made from 2012 through to 2016 to improve the situation in the justice system.
\n\t\t 
\n\t\t\u201cThe Ministry is aware that the current state of judiciary is still far removed from what the Serbian citizens deserve and should have, but anyone who wants to see the big picture in objective terms may infer that it is much better now than it used to be in 2012,\u201d reads the press release.
\n\t\t 
\n\t\tThe Ministry highlighted the results of its work in ten bullet-points: refurbishment and construction of judicial facilities, implementation of the Whistleblower Protection Act and the Right to Trial within Reasonable Time Protection Act, reduction in the number of cases against the state before the Strasbourg court, introduction of a new electronic system for domestic violence prevention, etc. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIn addition, both the Government, as an executive authority, and the Parliament, as a legislative authority, toe the party line which is why it has almost never happened that a bill proposed by either the Government or a ruling party MP has been rejected. As a consequence, in 80% of all the legislative initiatives the laws were passed in a fast-track procedure without expert public debate. <\/p>\n

\n\t 
\n\tAccording to the Council\u2019s findings, such laws are corruptive as they confer large powers on a small group of individuals, which is most conspicuous in privatisation cases where the authority to decide on the manner of sale of state-owned assets without any control and transparency is vested in cabinet members. Thus, many contracts on disposal of state assets are shrouded in secrecy.
\n\t 
\n\t\u201cAs regards the confidentiality of contracts, it is important if confidentiality is intended as a cover for money laundering and unlawfulness of contractual provisions or as a front for onerous contracts due to corruption (Belgrade Waterfront, Air Serbia, Fiat, \u017delezara – Smederevo Steelworks – a series of contracts on acquisition of agricultural land, etc.),\u201d reads the report.
\n\t 
\n\tThe Council highlighted as a problem a large backlog of pending court cases. Judicial reform neither yielded results, nor did it make the justice system more efficient. Thus, at the beginning of the reform in 2009, there were 1,318,059 unresolved cases in total; in late 2014 \u2013 2,849,360; and in late 2015 \u2013 2,837,468. A slight improvement occurred when the Supreme Court of Cassation\u2019s president adopted a programme for reduction of the backlog of old cases.
\n\t
\n\tMiroslava Milenovi\u0107<\/strong>, a Council member, said that judiciary still did not have its own budget detached from the executive authorities. As a result, bank accounts of many courts in 2015 were blocked. The debt of courts in aggregate for the first half of 2015 totalled almost 840 million dinars.
\n\t 
\n\t\u201cBudget for courts and prosecutors\u2019 offices cannot be planned in the offices of the Treasury and Finance Ministry,\u201d Milenovi\u0107 told the press conference yesterday. \u201cNo one does it that way anywhere in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Current state of judiciary is bad, the executive authority wields a strong influence on judges and prosecutors, and the Justice Ministry has fallen short of target in the fight against corruption because, in fact, there has been no comprehensive judicial reform in place, stated the Anti-Corruption Council. Polygraph tests are used as a crucial piece of evidence, PM Vu\u010di\u0107 comments on pending cases, and laws are passed in a fast-track procedure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1341,"featured_media":16556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1596,1497],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-and-prosecution","category-news","ciTrackContent"],"acf":[],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1463471334~~IMG_2025.JPG","author_additional":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22293,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20008\/revisions\/22293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}