Scandalous justice union dinner "no crime", says prosecution

Officials of a Serbian judicial trade union, who were served dinner off the naked bodies of two women in a hotel in eastern Serbia, broke no law. The nature of the gathering in Kladovo's Djerdap Hotel last June was "immoral, but not criminal", the state prosecution told B92. Scandalous justice union dinner "no crime", says prosecution Some 200 participants now claim they had no idea what awaited them at the hotel, but the hotel's management says the guests got in the spirit of events and participated by taking photographs of the nude women. The scandalous dinner's theme was "Naked Justice", explained the hotel's marketing director, Veljko Komlenic. The hotel apparently decided to mix motifs of Roman justice and Roman-style bacchanalia: a woman dressed as Roman goddess Justitia - "equipped with sward and scales, as befits the character" - was sitting at the head of the buffet. But the buffet table also featured "human serving trays" of sorts - in the words of Komlenic, "two girls were below her that only served to display the food". "After 15 minutes of taking photos, at least 200 of them (union officials) took the photos, therefore I say those photos exist," Komlenic was quoted. The union organization in question reacted by saying that the scandal was being reported in the media nine months later "because of political pressure against them", and insisted they were unaware of the "surprise" the hotel had in store for them. Their representative Sladjanka Milosevic says there was "no contract to serve food off naked girls, we had no such ideas because we're a serious union organization". Asked why the participants failed to leave the room once they realized the nature of the dinner party, Milosevic said: "Once we saw it, we reacted. We told the hosts to remove the girls because we did not order that. A number of male participants approached (the table), looked and took photographs, but that lasted only a very short time." But psychologists see this type of celebration as "proof of a general degradation of values". "What happened is also a form of violence," says Zarko Trebjesanin. "People think that violence is only when someone beats you up and inflicts injuries, but this is also violence - the degradation of women who are being reduced to something they are not." This psychologist also warned that although bacchanalia became common in ancient Rome - the empire's demise followed shortly after. (B92) B92

Scandalous justice union dinner "no crime", says prosecution

Some 200 participants now claim they had no idea what awaited them at the hotel, but the hotel's management says the guests got in the spirit of events and participated by taking photographs of the nude women.

The scandalous dinner's theme was "Naked Justice", explained the hotel's marketing director, Veljko Komlenić.

The hotel apparently decided to mix motifs of Roman justice and Roman-style bacchanalia: a woman dressed as Roman goddess Justitia - "equipped with sward and scales, as befits the character" - was sitting at the head of the buffet.

But the buffet table also featured "human serving trays" of sorts - in the words of Komlenić, "two girls were below her that only served to display the food".

"After 15 minutes of taking photos, at least 200 of them (union officials) took the photos, therefore I say those photos exist," Komlenić was quoted.

The union organization in question reacted by saying that the scandal was being reported in the media nine months later "because of political pressure against them", and insisted they were unaware of the "surprise" the hotel had in store for them.

Their representative Slađanka Milošević says there was "no contract to serve food off naked girls, we had no such ideas because we're a serious union organization".

Asked why the participants failed to leave the room once they realized the nature of the dinner party, Milošević said:

"Once we saw it, we reacted. We told the hosts to remove the girls because we did not order that. A number of male participants approached (the table), looked and took photographs, but that lasted only a very short time."

But psychologists see this type of celebration as "proof of a general degradation of values".

"What happened is also a form of violence," says Žarko Trebješanin. "People think that violence is only when someone beats you up and inflicts injuries, but this is also violence - the degradation of women who are being reduced to something they are not."

This psychologist also warned that although bacchanalia became common in ancient Rome - the empire's demise followed shortly after.