"Supreme Court judges won't be reprimanded"

Supreme Court judges who let the ex-BIA deputy chief walk free won't be relieved of their duties and that decision is final, says the court’s acting president. Nata Mesarevic told B92 that the Supreme Court would convene on September 2 to hear Milorad Ulemek and Zvezdana Jovanovic’s appeal against their conviction for the murder of the late Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. "Supreme Court judges won't be reprimanded" In early March, Supreme Court judges Sonja Manojlovic, Dragisa Djordjevic and Miodrag Vicentijevic upheld Milorad Bracanovic’s petition to the court, and released him on parole two months before his prison sentence was due to end. “Just before I got here for the program, I asked for the approval of the president of the Great Personal Chamber and was told that that chamber had found no grounds to launch dismissal proceedings against Manojlovic, Djordjevic and Vicentijevic, and that decision is final,” Mesarevic explained. She said that a public hearing on the appeal in the case would be held at the Supreme Court starting September 8. That hearing will be devoted to considering Ulemeka and Jovanovic’s appeal against their 40-year prison sentence for the murder of the late prime minister. Asked why there had been no investigation into the political background of the crime, Mesarevic, who was the Special Court’s presiding judge when the sentences were handed down, said that the court had, as in all cases, been tied to the Special Prosecution’s indictment. “We can transcend the indictment, we couldn’t conduct an investigation for a crime that no-one had been accused of in the middle of the trial. Why no-one was ever accused, that’s not a question for me, but for someone else,” the acting Supreme Court president underlined. She said that she did not want to discuss death threats that had been sent to her, as some of those convicted of Djindjic's murder were still at large.

"Supreme Court judges won't be reprimanded"

In early March, Supreme Court judges Sonja Manojlović, Dragiša Đorđević and Miodrag Vićentijević upheld Milorad Bracanović’s petition to the court, and released him on parole two months before his prison sentence was due to end.

“Just before I got here for the program, I asked for the approval of the president of the Great Personal Chamber and was told that that chamber had found no grounds to launch dismissal proceedings against Manojlović, Đorđević and Vićentijević, and that decision is final,” Mesarević explained.

She said that a public hearing on the appeal in the case would be held at the Supreme Court starting September 8.

That hearing will be devoted to considering Ulemeka and Jovanović’s appeal against their 40-year prison sentence for the murder of the late prime minister.

Asked why there had been no investigation into the political background of the crime, Mesarević, who was the Special Court’s presiding judge when the sentences were handed down, said that the court had, as in all cases, been tied to the Special Prosecution’s indictment.

“We can transcend the indictment, we couldn’t conduct an investigation for a crime that no-one had been accused of in the middle of the trial. Why no-one was ever accused, that’s not a question for me, but for someone else,” the acting Supreme Court president underlined.

She said that she did not want to discuss death threats that had been sent to her, as some of those convicted of Đinđić's murder were still at large.