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The Nis Administrative Court overturned the decision of Police Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic on the dismissal of a member of the Nis Gendarmerie Detachment, Zlatko Gigic, who was sentenced after being convicted at the Pride March in September 2014, when the brothers of the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali were beaten.
Photo: FoNet / Aleksandar Levajković (Archive)The Administrative Court upheld Gigić’s claim, stating that the dismissal was illegal, because according to the Police Law, an employee’s employment in the Ministry of the Interior automatically ends when he is sentenced to an effective prison term, not a suspended sentence. . The decision on Gigić’s dismissal, taken in February this year, refers to the Civil Servants Law, although it is a general regulation of the Police Law, which is more effective because it regulates a specific area.
In December last year, the Belgrade High Court sentenced Gigić and six other members of the Nis Gendarmerie to a suspended sentence of eight months in prison, which will not be carried out unless they commit a crime within the next three years. They were convicted of assaulting a soldier in the line of duty and torturing and abusing him for being violent during the intervention against Andrej Vučić, Predrag Mali and two members of the Cobra military unit, who were in his company.
– I only hope justice from the Ministry of the Interior and that they return me to work … Now, the Ministry of the Interior is on the move. In case of non-compliance with the court’s decision, the steps provided by the legal regulations and the Constitution will be followed – said Gigić regarding the verdict, according to the Police Union “Sloga”.
He said he was confident that this verdict would establish a practice that will protect against dismissal of any police officer on whom the court imposes a warning measure and a suspended sentence. In such cases, only the Police Law, which regulates the issue, should be applied, and not rules that suit the employer, he said.
– I think that the story of my life does not interest anyone and that it is the least important. The arrogance and abuse of power of individuals at the top of the Ministry of the Interior is more important. Beyond the Constitution and the law, they approve illegal acts and extinguish entire families in that rude and extremely brutal way. They are considered higher than the court itself – he concluded.
The decision on the termination of Gigić’s employment relationship, dated February this year, establishes that the employment relationship was terminated retroactively, in December last year, when the verdict of the High Court of Belgrade in which he was imposed a conditional sentence it became final. The decision was signed by Minister Stefanović, although the practice is for this type of internal act to be signed by the director of the police, Vadimir Rebić.
In February this year, Gigić told our newspaper that the decision indicated that his job had been fired because “he was not worthy to wear a uniform and work in the Interior Ministry.” He said there was no blemish on his career, that he received numerous decorations for his work in the Ministry of the Interior, and that in 1999 he was injured.
According to available data, out of seven convicted gendarmes, five were fired when the High Court verdict became final.
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