Arrest of former District Prosecutor Rade Terzić politically motivated

The arrest of the former District Prosecutor Rade Terzić in Belgrade is a part of a well organized campaign directed against assassinated Serbia’s Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, launched soon after the judgment was passed in the trial of his assassins. The goal of this campaign is to eliminate and ridicule the request of injured party’s representatives and a part of the democratic public in Serbia to establish the political motive of the murder of the Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić, which the Prosecution in this case obviously purposely failed to do.

Office of the Special Prosecutor for Fighting Organized Crime, apparently under a direct political pressure, creates an inversion of sort, getting busy collecting facts relevant for the political background of the murder of the Prime Minister, while at the same time helping promote the political interpretation of the assassination, which explains that the Prime Minister Đinđić was killed in a mafia-related incident.

In that context, Office of the Special Prosecutor for Fighting Organized Crime declares former District Prosecutor a member of the Zemun Gang in an attempt to stifle questions about political activities of the Zemun Gang and the fact that it enjoyed an open support from Serbian institutions under the control of the then president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ) Vojislav Koštunica, which constitutes the focal point of the political background of the assassination of Prime Minister Đinđić. Political engagement of the Zemun Gang began when their leader, Dušan Spasojević, became involved with Milorad Ulemek Legija, Serbian Ministry of the Interior (MUP) colonel; when Dušan Spasojević came in touch with general Aco Tomić, head of the Counter Intelligence Services (KOS); when acting together (Special Operations Unit (JSO) and the Zemun Gang, with the support of some Serbian government officials) they organized an armed protest of the JSO, whose actual and factual commander and leader was Milorad Ulemek Legija; when they only made requests of political nature; when they appointed Milorad Bracanović, security officer of the JSO, de facto head of the secret police, which was commended as a patriotic act by Rade Bulatović, adviser to Vojislav Koštunica at the time, in an article he wrote for the weekly “NIN” magazine of March 28, 2002, which was reported by every media outlet in Serbia, and which was also highly praised by Dragan Jočić, top Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) official at the time, and when Vojislav Koštunica, the then president of the SRJ, proposed the formation of a “concentration government” several hours after the assassination of Prime Minister Đinđić.

Instead of shedding light on the events in question, the Office of the Special Prosecutor stages the trial, declaring the former District Prosecutor of Belgrade a member of the Zemun Gang, failing to offer any evidence, and charging him with actions a prosecutor is authorized to undertake, which were a matter of his jurisdiction, and which he conducted independently and autonomously.

We ask Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica to stop waging war on the Serbia still loyal to the period of the first democratic government, to stop humiliating the judiciary, to stop using the secret police to the detriment of the best interest of Serbian citizens and democratic future of Serbia. We ask the judiciary to stop adopting political directives and to commit themselves to understanding the political background of the assassination of the Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić regardless of who will be found responsible for the crime.

Humanitarian Law Center
The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM)
Independent Society of Journalists of Vojvodina
Youth Initiative for Human Rights
Civil Action, Pančevo
Open Lyceum, Sombor
Center for Cultural Decomtamination
Women in Black
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Serbia
Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms
Center for Regionalism
Forum of the Stara Pazova Citizens
Panonija Civil Fond