“New proceeding against right-wing group possible”

Source: B92

BELGRADE -- Constitutional Court of Serbia President Dragiša Slijepčević has stated that it is possible to launch a new proceeding aimed at banning SNP Naši organization.

Dragiša Slijepčević (Tanjug, file)
Dragiša Slijepčević (Tanjug, file)

However, he said that the prosecution, which should launch the proceeding, was in charge of determining criminal responsibility.

Serbian parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee President Vladimir Cvijan said four days ago that the prosecution had launched a new proceeding against Naši.

He told Tanjug that criminal proceedings against individual members of the organization had already been launched. Cvijan added that adequate proceedings before the Constitutional Court had announced.

“Therefore, it is now up to the competent organs to decide if there are elements of criminal acts and elements of anti-constitutional activities there,” he said.

Cvijan stressed that ordinary courts should make their decisions before the Constitutional Court.

“Regular courts, however, have not decided on this and this tells us that something is wrong,” he noted.

The Constitutional Court of Serbia president has stated that the court had banned right-wing organizations Nacionalni stroj and Obraz and declared itself incompetent in the case of fan groups and refused to ban SNP Naši.

He said on Wednesday that the Constitutional Court judges had in the case of SNP Naši looked at the evidence provided by the Prosecution and that the Prosecution should therefore answer for the quality of the evidence.

Slijepčević said that the Constitutional Court, based on the evidence, could not ban the right-wing organization.

“If an organization can be banned just by opening its website, then why do we need the Constitutional Court? It also does not mean that the ban issued by the Constitutional Court will prevent their actions because they can function even if they are not registered and the state will once again have a problem,” he said and noted that the competent organs should deal with the issue first.