Human Rights Action finds encouraging that the State Prosecutor, despite the pressure, indicted the Police Directorate (PD) officer Milenko Mića Rabrenović for threats against journalist Olivera Lakić.

Without prejudice as regards the decision on the defendant’s guilt or innocence, HRA believes that indictment against the PD officer, in spite of the pressure executed on the Prosecutor’s Office, contributes to the strengthening of confidence in the ability of the State Prosecutor to act lawfully and independently in order to protect human rights of citizens against the abuse of state power.

Such action of the State Prosecutor’s Office represents an improvement, compared to the case of police officer Mirko Banović, also a former police officer and bodyguard of the PD Director Veselin Veljović, publicly identified as a person who had threatened our colleague Aleksandar Saša Zeković, researcher of human rights violations and member of the Council for Civilian Control of the Police. In spite of the voice recording of a person who made the threat, the Prosecutor’s Office had only managed to note that the recording had “disappeared” from the case file and that the criminal prosecution in this case had become time-barred, despite repeated reminders from NGOs about the importance of the proceedings. Unfortunately, the responsible person(s) for continuing death threats against Zeković were never found, nor was the responsibility of police officers and State Prosecutor’s Office for criminal prosecution time-bar in this case ever established.

HRA expects the competent authorities to also prosecute a person responsible for ordering threats against journalist Olivera Lakić as soon as possible. Furthermore, we expect the public soon to be informed of progress in the investigations of other attacks on journalists, in line with the conclusion of the meeting held on 12 March 2012, at the initiative of the then Prime Minister Igor Lukšić, between the PD Director Božidar Vuksanović, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Dusko Marković, Supreme State Prosecutor Ranka Čarapić, then Interior Minister Ivan Brajović and Special Prosecutor Đurđina Ivanović, who then decided to make effective investigations of all such attacks a priority.