Government suspends Bar Association instructions

Government suspends Bar Association instructions

The Government ordered a suspension of the instructions to lawyers during protests, the Government statement said.

The Minister of Justice, Nikola Selakovic, said on Thursday that it is "a signal to lawyers who want to work that they can go back to the courtrooms tomorrow and be dignified representatives of their profession in a way that endangers neither the interests of the citizens, nor the interests of the state."

The Government decision came after the expiry of a 48-hour deadline set by the Ministry of Justice for the Bar Association to scrap the controversial act on its own.

The Association's instructions of September 13 banned lawyers from attending trials or going to the prosecutor's office or the police during the nationwide strike that started on September 17.

The lawyers were only obliged to file charges, appeals and other written documents in case a violation of a deadline was to result in a loss of rights.

Belgrade-based lawyers, who have been on strike since September 10, were joined by their colleagues across Serbia on September 17.

The lawyers request that this year's tax base be reduced by 10 percent and want to be allowed to perform the same tasks as before the introduction of public notaries.