Today, the legal team of the People's Party filed a criminal complaint against the director of the Security and Information Agency (BIA) Bratislava Gašić, the head of the Security Directorate of the BIA Marko Parezanović and three members of the agency on the suspicion that they "kidnapped and tortured" a member of that party, Konstantin Katic.
The People's Party announced earlier that BIA members illegally kidnapped Katic on September 26, tortured him for four hours at his workplace and asked him to admit that he was the author of a tweet insulting Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
At a press conference in front of the Special Court in Belgrade, the vice-president of the People's Party, Zdravko Ponoš, said that the party is demanding political and criminal responsibility of the leaders of the BIA for the illegal abduction and torture of Katić.
Ponoš said that since the day of the "kidnapping" no representative of the authorities has spoken about it, and that Radio-television of Serbia (RTS) is "silent" about it, "as if nothing had happened".
"They have the idea that it is normal to kidnap and beat people," Ponoš said and emphasized that the People's Party will not be silent about it.
He pointed out that it is necessary to show "that we are not afraid, for the sake of all citizens".
Ponoš also reminded that six years ago Gasic was removed from the position of Minister of Defense because he insulted a journalist as well as the words of the then Prime Minister and the current President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, that "decency is something that is required of everyone".
"If someone then had to leave the position of Minister of Defense, is it normal to ignore the fact that the same man is at the head of the service that kidnapped and tortured a man and to remain in that position (director of the BIA). If this does not require political responsibility , I don't know what it takes," Ponoš said.
He assessed that Vučić resolves his relations with Europeans by handing them flowers and valuable jobs without tenders, and relations in society by threatening the citizens of Serbia.
According to him, the latest is that his services are beating citizens.
Ponoš compared the behavior of the authorities in relation to Katic to "the strategy of cooking a frog".
"The strategy is for this to fall into oblivion, they have the idea of cooking us like frogs and for us to get used to the fact that it is normal for them to kidnap and beat people. We have to jump out of that pot, that is the task of all of us, otherwise they will cook us." he explained vividly.
He stated that the government, as far as the criminal responsibility of BIA members is concerned, cannot stop the People's Party.
"Regardless of the fact that we do not have any great expectation that someone will be called to political responsibility, we will continue to call for it, because if we remain silent about it, it will turn out that we are afraid. We have to show that we are not afraid for the sake of all the citizens who will meet tomorrow in similar situation," he said.
He also added that if Vučić continues to rule Serbia, "he will soon not need any other instrument or any other institution", but only the secret and public police.
The functionary of the People's Party, Vladimir Gajić, specified that the report was submitted due to the suspicion that criminal acts of abuse of official position, abuse and torture, unconscionable work in the service and unlawful deprivation of liberty were committed.
"We also provided more detailed information that could identify three BIA officers who work in the department at the Belgrade airport," he said.
Gajić repeated that Katic was unlawfully deprived of his liberty, and pointed out that it was not an informative conversation.
"He was actually kidnapped, members of the BIA tried to force a statement, they beat him, threatened to break his arms and legs," Gajić said.
Lawyer Ognjen Radić said that the authorities were asked to provide police protection to Katic.
"In the criminal report, we asked for it because the criminal offense was committed by (by) members of the BIA," he said.
He added that the BIA, according to the law, should not have been involved in this case.
"You will not see anywhere that BIA officers are allowed to engage in insults, and here and here specifically in reference to insults, so we proposed to provide protection to the injured because we believe that this will not stop," he said.
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