The lawyers ridiculed the proposal for the introduction of a new crime: the Society

If, by chance, the initiative to reform the Penal Code is accepted in order to introduce a new crime: Attacking the mental integrity and tranquility of a relative of the highest officials of the State, those who commit it could go to prison of up to five years.

Photo: Beta / Miloš Miškov

Representatives of the profession with whom we spoke value this initiative as absurd and senseless, whose sole objective is “to flatter the leader.”

However, Mario Spasic, on behalf of the association “Council for Monitoring, Human Rights and the Fight Against Corruption Transparency”, which presents a proposal for the introduction of a new crime, thinks differently.

In a statement for our newspaper, Spasic says it is great that so much media dust has been raised about his ad and “that the public has finally drawn the attention of the insults, exposing insults, lies and half-truths of relatives of the highest State bodies, that is, representatives of those bodies “.

According to him, in Serbia the border between politicians and representatives of the highest state organs has been erased, and instead of criticism, which is a legitimate and acceptable form of political struggle, we have come to attack relatives “in a morbid way , who should not be victims. “

– In relation to the fact that all borders have been moved and that legitimate criticism in Serbia has turned into inadmissible attacks against relatives of government officials, whoever they are, we are definitely proposing the introduction of a new crime aimed at punishing the imprisonment. for five years of all those who have no measure and who expose insults, that is, with denounced lies and half-truths violate the integrity of a relative of the highest state body or a representative of that body, where the burden of proving the truth would fall in whom the information is publicly communicated – says Spasic.

According to him, through this legal change, an additional order in the veracity of the reports would first be introduced.

– On the other hand, there would be protected family members who do not necessarily suffer psychological, moral damage and their own reputation just because someone does not agree politically with the decisions of their relative who performs one of the highest state functions. The goal is to protect the family from ridicule, lies and half-truths, both now and in the future, while everything else is not subject to this legal change, Spasić notes.

When asked if that means that the media would be criminally liable if, for example, they published a photo of a family member of an official with members of the criminal milieu, our interlocutor did not give a specific answer.

– I understand the tendency to make our initiative meaningless by who replaces the thesis, but unproven hints are not the subject of our interest – said Spasić.

When asked to comment on the proposal to amend the Penal Code, lawyer Vladimir Gajić told Danas that “even in this Serbia, such monumental nonsense cannot happen.”

– When it comes to the protection of a person’s moral values ​​or mental integrity, protection is in the domain of civil law. That colleague has stood out as a legal ignorant before, so I am not surprised by this proposal. The need for progressives to compete to flatter the leader has spread. It’s gotten comical in a way, Gajić estimates.

He adds that our society is sliding into a kind of fascism.

– I would like to remind you that there were no proposals of this type during the one-party dictatorship of Tito, nor during the Milosevic era to give criminal protection to members of the dictator’s family in the domain of the so-called verbal offense. I would not be surprised if after shouting the slogan in the Assembly “Viva Vucic”, one of the deputies proposed Vucic for life as president – says Gajic.

Lawyer Božo Prelević also believes that the initiative lacks legal meaning, adding that such protection already exists.

– The reason for this initiative is the same throughout the centuries and is briefly reduced to the desire to be noticed by the leader as someone who stands out. By its nature, this initiative is precisely an attack on the mental integrity of the nation. It is another example for the analysis of the claim that during Tito’s time, the Communist Party forced people to flattery and cowardice. The Communist Party and Tito no longer exist. It will be that then we were not infected – says Prelević for Danas.

Lawyer Vladimir Todorić says for our newspaper that the initiative seems to him a proposal worthy of the authority of the current convocation of the National Assembly.

– It is such an absurd and shameful proposal that it is out of place to start a discussion between experts. Such an idea speaks to the proponent who knows so little about criminal law that he does not even realize the nonsense he proposed. Unfortunately, even the current attempts of the deputies will not know – concludes Todorić.

Majic: an exotic initiative

The judge of the Court of Appeal of Belgrade, Miodrag Majić, says for Danas that he would first have to look at the text of the initiative to be able to comment on it, because this seems to him “quite exotic”. “It seems to me that this is a fairly common idea for everyday political use, rather than a somewhat serious criminal legal initiative. “Even in local conditions,” Majic said.

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