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The chairman of the Council of the University of Belgrade, professor at the Faculty of Chemistry Aleksandar Popovic said that if there is equality before the law in Serbia, someone from the prosecutor’s office or the state audit institution should be arrested for giving information to the media that the rector of the University of Belgrade Ivanka Popovic Criminal charges.
Popovic, former Minister of Science and Minister of Energy of Serbia, said in an interview with the Istinomer portal that “no one in the University Rectorate received any official notification” that the State Audit Institution (SAI) had filed criminal charges against Rector Popovic . adding that “it is unusual that some media reported the existence of that report last week.”
“According to the statement by Prime Minister (of Serbia Ana) Brnabić that the rule of law is one of the three key objectives of the government she leads, I hope that the same applied to the former chief of police (Ilija ) will apply to someone, I don’t know who it is. ” Milacic, who was arrested at the time of the Belivuk group’s arrest because he was revealing an official secret to the media, “Popovic said.
He affirmed that “the very fact that some media published the existence of a criminal complaint before the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed it on Monday, shows that the news in this regard reached the media of the Prosecutor’s Office or the State Supervisory Entity.”
“If we are all equal before the law, then, as in the case of police officer Milacic, someone from the prosecution or the State Audit Institution should be arrested.” I hope the prime minister will demonstrate the rule of law and treat who revealed an official secret and disclosed information to the media in the same way as to a police officer arrested for it, “Popovic added.
Regarding the criminal complaint filed by the SAI against Rector Popović, accusing her of misappropriation of around three million dinars in 2019, Popović said that the University Council adopts the financial plan and the final report on the University Senate proposal and that neither it can take into account, nor does it have information about the expenditure of each individual dinar.
“Lest this be understood now as a rector’s fence, personally I am absolutely convinced that Ivanka Popović did not break the law. I am absolutely convinced that not a single padding was put in his pocket,” Popović said.
He said it would be “very interesting to know” and if the SAI, which had investigated many ministries and many public companies in the previous period, had filed criminal charges in case the conclusions “were much worse, more rigid and more shocking than in this single case. “In this case, it weighs significantly higher amounts.”
“It would be very good to do an analysis of ten or 20 findings from the SAI and see if criminal charges were brought for incomparably larger sums and for sums that were obvious as embezzlement, since there is nothing like that here. If that does not happen and If it happens that these criminal charges are not filed in incomparably worse situations, then obviously there is a reason why it is being filed now, and in the ‘greatest sinners’ cases it is not being filed, “Popovic added.
He said that it is possible that in this particular case it is “a kind of pressure” on the faculties that must propose candidates for rector or rector, and on the Senate that must approve the proposal and vote if there are more candidates, too. as in the Council, who finally elects and dismisses.
He said that Rector Popović, until someone raises the issue of support, has the full support of both the Council and the Senate, regardless of the situation he claims is “to put it mildly, extremely suspicious in nature.”
“I really don’t see any reason for the Council and Senate to declare themselves at each of their sessions.” If there is someone who is not satisfied with the work, and the SAI report was presented before the previous Council session and before the previous session of the Senate, then if there is a single person who wants to discuss it, I will certainly do so.
When asked whether filing a criminal complaint could be understood as revenge by the rector for declaring the doctorate of Finance Minister Siniša Mali plagiarized, Popović said he did not know and “did not think of it that way.”
“I am a chemist, I am not from the social sciences. Party politics must be outside the University. In this mission, or in any other in which I act as president of the Council, I will not express any of my political opinions, and of course It is clear what my political views are, ”said the President of the Council of the Republic, University of Belgrade.
Popovic also said that he would like Ivanka Popovic to run again for the post of rector of the University of Belgrade, but that it was his personal decision.
Media reported last week that the SAI had filed a criminal complaint against Ivanka Popovic, accusing her of embezzlement of budget funds. The report indicates that the rector entered into fixed-term employment contracts with the people she hired without legal basis, without obtaining the prior consent of the competent authority for her relationship with users of public funds.
