Political pressure on the judiciary

In regards to circumstances surrounding the arrest of former minister of Justice, Vladan Batić, and the lack of material evidence to prove that at the time of release of Nenad Jovanović from the central prison in Kruševac, on 7 June 2003 that certain abuse of authority occurred, the Humanitarian Law Center is of the opinion that the rejection of complaint against the court decision to remand in detention former Director of the Administration for the  Execution of Criminal Sanctions, Dragan Vulić, is a continuation of pressure of the executive authorities on the organs of the judiciary.

This is confirmed by the dispute about the time of the beginning of the implementation of the decision of the Constitutional Court suspending individual legal acts and activities brought or initiated on the basis of the refuted articles of the Law on Organization and Jurisdiction of the State Organs in the Suppression of Organized Crime which, all together, points to the political dimension of the attempts to prosecute former officials of the Ministry of Justice.

Although the decision of the Constitutional Court to suspend the implementation of the acts and activities initiated on the basis of the refuted articles we believe that one should take into account a number of facts: first, in its Decision, the Constitutional Court stated that the consequences of the implementation of the said legal provisions cannot be completely removed, particularly in connection with the protection of constitutional freedoms and rights guaranteed with the provisions of articles 16, 22 and 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia and the principles of constitutionality and legality, which is why the implementation of the acts and activities initiated on the basis of the refuted legal provisions might result in damaging consequences; second, preventive custody of certain persons without court’s decision is a violation of the basic international documents on human rights; third, having in mind the danger of the damaging consequences due to de facto detention of certain persons, it would be inadmissible to extend this illegal state of affairs. The protection and implementation of the guaranteed constitutional rights, such as the right to personal freedom, should be the basic legal interest.