Why are the authorities and tabloids in Serbia campaigning against the prosecutor for organized crime?

Direct pressure and unauthorized influence – this is how the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (TOK) described the statements of the highest government representatives in Serbia and publications in pro-government tabloids, which discredit Special Prosecutor Mladen Nenadić.

While President Aleksandar Vučić and Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabić accuse Nenadić of participating in an attempt to "undermine the state," the Ministry of Justice remains silent.

The ministry did not respond to Radio Free Europe's (RFE) questions about how they react to statements by officials and publications against the organized crime prosecutor in pro-government media.

The campaign against Nenadić comes at a time when the Prosecutor's Office, headed by him, took over the indictment in one of the cases initiated after the collapse of the Novi Sad Railway Station canopy on November 1.

"This is an attack by the authorities on the prosecutor and the prosecution," says former Supreme Court President Vida Petrović Škero.

"The authorities at this point clearly do not want TOK, which is best placed to conduct an investigation into the canopy collapse, to do its job," she points out.

The accident at the Novi Sad Railway Station, which killed 16 people, triggered a wave of mass anti-government protests across Serbia.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens have taken to the streets over the past eight months with a key demand - to establish criminal and political responsibility for the accident.

The focus of the protest is allegations that corruption led to the canopy's collapse.

Vida Petrović Škero, however, recalls that in the first days after the accident, the highest government representatives rejected accusations of corruption and blamed the profession for the canopy collapse.

"The prosecution has obviously now started doing work that is not in accordance with the wishes of the authorities," she believes.

What was published?

It started with photography.

"This is not the first time that the government, when it wants to remove a prosecutor or judge, has used a private recording in order to undermine his personality and reputation through the tabloids," points out Vida Petrović Škero.

A photo of a group of people at a restaurant from a private event was recently published in pro-government tabloids.

It includes, among others, the Chief Public Prosecutor of TOK Mladen Nenadić, the Rector of the University of Belgrade Vladan Đokić, and former basketball player Dejan Bodiroga.

Djokic and Bodiroga have publicly supported the protests, led by students who have blocked dozens of faculties across Serbia in recent months. And for that, they have been targeted by the authorities and pro-government tabloids.

"From what I've seen, the people in that photo are very respectable, and I don't know what their objections are, except that they don't support the political beliefs of the party in power," Vida Petrović Škero points out.

"One photo of a private celebration really cannot be evidence for the overthrow of a state," she adds.

However, based on that photograph, prosecutor Nenadić was characterized in tabloid media as a "blockade prosecutor" and someone participating in a "coup d'état".

Government representatives use the term "blokaderi" for students and citizens who are taking to the streets to demand accountability for the accident in Novi Sad.

Without providing evidence, the government has previously accused public figures who supported the protests of "attempted coups".

The accusations were accompanied by claims that unnamed Western states were behind the attempted overthrow of the government.

And after the publication of the photo of Nenadić, statements from top officials to pro-government tabloids followed.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić thus claimed that the people in the photo wanted to "arrest" everyone in Serbia.

"They went so far as to want to arrest everyone in the country, in order to curry favor with the blockaders, including me, and to do the dirtiest job for foreign powers," Vučić told Informer on July 11.

The photo from the tabloid then appeared on the streets of Belgrade.

Unsigned posters with a photograph, and the names and positions of everyone in it, were plastered around the city on the night between July 12th and 13th.

How did the Prosecutor's Office respond?

The Collegium of the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (TOK) reacted to the campaign against Nenadić with a statement on July 14th.

They believe that the content recently broadcast on certain media outlets is aimed at discrediting that prosecutor's office.

"And statements criminalizing the Chief Public Prosecutor and public prosecutors exceed the permissible measure of public speaking," it was stated.

They also assessed that such statements were "unfounded" and "offensive".

They also added that the statements about the illegal actions of that prosecutor's office are unfounded.

Such statements, it was assessed, "create pressure on prosecutors, and form a negative opinion in advance among the public" about both the prosecution and the outcome of the proceedings.

The TOK Collegium added in a statement that presenting data and information that does not correspond to the factual situation represents a violation of the independence of that prosecutor's office in prosecuting and processing all perpetrators of criminal offenses.

They also conclude that the European Court of Human Rights sanctions such statements regardless of who made them.

What is the Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office investigating?

The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime is, according to Serbian law, responsible for handling some of the most serious criminal offenses - organized crime, terrorism, and corruption.

"TOK has staff that is highly specialized in conducting investigations into such cases, where elements of corruption can be discerned and how certain things are done within the system," explains Vida Petrović Škero.

TOK took over the indictment for one of the corruption cases being conducted after the canopy collapse from the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade.

As announced on July 14, the decision to take over the indictment was made by the Supreme Public Prosecutor, citing "the efficient conduct of the proceedings."

The indictment in question, filed in March, is against the investment development manager at the public company "Infrastrukture Željeznica Srbije", as well as the president and members of the technical inspection commission of the Novi Sad Railway Station.

According to earlier reports, the three are suspected of "criminal acts with a corrupt element," which resulted in the collapse of the canopy.

The canopy collapsed four months after the official opening of the station building. It was preceded by a three-year reconstruction.

It is part of a large project to build a high-speed railway from Belgrade to the border with Hungary - in cooperation with Chinese companies, based on an interstate agreement.

The project was managed by the Ministry of Construction and public companies in charge of railways.

It was previously announced that TOK is also conducting a pre-investigation procedure regarding the financing of the reconstruction of the Railway Station.

TOK is also responsible for the investigation into the "General Staff" case, which has also been in the public spotlight in recent months.

The acting director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments is suspected of abusing his official position - forging signatures on a document proposing the lifting of protection from the bombed General Staff complex in Belgrade.

The company of the son-in-law of United States President Donald Trump planned to build a luxury hotel on that site.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić told Pink television on July 10 that "the General Staff case was invented" to hide the "canopy" case.

Previously, Vučić claimed that "there was no falsification" of documentation in the General Staff case, in order to enable Trump's son-in-law to build a hotel.

The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime also referred to such statements in a statement.

"Recent statements, relating to TOK's actions in the 'General Staff' investigation case and the pre-investigation procedure into financial flows in connection with the canopy collapse, represent direct pressure and unauthorized influence on the work of this prosecutor's office," it was stated on July 14.

Who is prosecutor Mladen Nenadić?

Mladen Nenadić has been the Prosecutor for Organized Crime since January 1, 2016.

This is his second six-year term at the helm of TOK.

He was elected to this position by the Serbian Parliament, with the votes of the ruling majority led by the Serbian Progressive Party.

Before becoming the head of the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, from 2004 to 2015, he worked as a lawyer.

He gained prosecutorial experience during the nineties and early two thousandths in the prosecutor's office in Čačak.

During his legal career, according to media reports, he represented defendants in several cases before the Special Court, in organized crime proceedings.

Pressure on judges and prosecutors since the beginning of the protests

This is not the first time that prosecutors and judges have been the target of criticism from the president and pro-government media.

Since the beginning of the protests, Vučić has repeatedly publicly commented on their work and threatened dismissals.

Thus, on May 20th, he announced that "those prosecutors and judges who support banditry, hooliganism, illegal behavior and injustice will no longer serve, but those who will protect the state of Serbia."

On March 22, during a conversation with citizens in Leskovac in southern Serbia, Vučić said that "judges and prosecutors who do not want to protect order and the law will be replaced."

More than 500 judges and prosecutors reacted to his statement at the time - assessing that the President of Serbia is continuously damaging the reputation of the prosecution and the court, and that his statements are taking on the characteristics of criminal offenses.

And the Association of Judges of Serbia warned at the time that no one, except for legally prescribed bodies in a legally prescribed procedure, is authorized to assess the legality of the work of judicial bodies.

The Constitution of Serbia stipulates the division of power into legislative, executive and judicial.

The relationship between these three branches is based on mutual control, with only the judiciary being independent.