No Evidenceno Offender

A growing number of criminals are free. They evade going to prison even when the administration of justice takes an interest in them. In that case the witnesses (if they turn up at all) whose testimonies would more often than not mean a verdict for the defendant usually change their statements given previously to the police and the court is forced to acquit them of all charges. This implies that there is no material evidence. No evidenceno offender, even if there is a general consensus including the criminal cuncil that the accused is guilty and that his place is in prison.

Spreading fear with threats has become a common and efficient way of forcing the witnesses to remain silent. However, it is certain that the time is yet to come when the criminals will have a free hand to pursue their activities without fearing prosecution. This refers to the organised crime whose existence is being persistently denounced by the officials. This is understandable considering the fact that the organised crime could not exist without being closely connected with the state and its active participation. In other words, there is a circle of people who have all the power (judicial, legislative and executive) in their hands and are thus able to prosecute, accuse, and try anybody or give up any court action from the start. It has become commonplace that the power-holders and the people close to them, some of them knee deep in crime, label any possible attempt at making their links with the underground public as an attack on the state. There is a number of examples: the Ministerial affair, Dafingate, the case of banker Jezdimir Vasiljevic, a number of murders, robberies and acts of vandalism that have not been solved deliberately...

"The talk about an independent legislature is a sheer illusion," is what we were told at the Palace of Justice in Belgrade. We were also warned that it is very delicate to make waves concerning the issue. "There are many ways of conniving at criminal acts," said attorney Toma Fila, the President of the Serbian Bar Association, and the majority of interventions end with the socalled police proceedings where a person (a policeman) can remove the evidence on purpose and deliberately refuse to reveal the perpetrator of a criminal act. This is not possible in the court proceedings. However, when the police get the suspect, with the right to hold him in custody for three days, and release him on someone's intervention only to file the charges in a regular way, there is great likelihood that he will never go to prison. On the other hand, if the police hand over the suspect together with the charge to the investigative judge and the public prosecutor the likelihood is that the perpetrator will get out of prison only after he has served his sentence.

What is meant by an intervention? Apart from those coming "from the top" about which Fila would not speak most of them have to do with money. "The practise of law has seen a great inflow of former policemen, prosecutors, and judges," Toma Fila explained and added, "But, what they offer is interventions rather than legal advice. Basically, they settle the matter for twenty, thirty, or fifty thousand DM. Then they brag about having made two or three million DM in a couple of years only. For instance, nine out of ten lawyers waiting in prison to see their clients are fledglings who have practised law for less than a year. Their popularity is not founded on experience and expertise, which I do not challenge, but on the interventions that were mostly successful. People in trouble decide to give money."

"Only jerks go to prison nowadays," is what they say in the Belgrade underground whose territory is divided among five gangs that are sometimes at feud. The Montenegrin gang is considered to be the strongest and most dangerous (a number of madman ready to shoot and kill is a criterion). One of its leaders was recently tried and acquitted because of the lack of evidence for murder he had been charged with. The only witness to murder was killed before the trial took place. Others who were there never saw anything. Almost all gangs enjoy the patronage of influential individuals in power either for patriotic merits on the front or favours they did for the state.

A former employee of the State Security said in his confession (the Belgrade daily "Borba," December 11 and 12, 1993), "Influential criminals are constantly in touch with the State Security that never owes anything to anybody. Some get money, others a job, a flat, a pardon or a reduction of the sentence, whatever one may need. The better the job is done, the bigger the award. When the quality of work is good the Security Service gets stronger and more influential. Its influence has never been greater than it is today."

When one takes into account the fact that our criminals have earned an enviable reputation in Europe and that they murder with ease (the liquidation of political opponents abroad, but also in the country) due to which the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the current Federal Republic of Yugoslavia top the lists of countries known for state terrorism, it is understandable that they are remain unnoticed and avoided by the police that are overwhelmed with dangerous individuals and small unregistered gangs. The least that the authorities can do for them is not to touch their freedom as long as their are loyal to those who issue orders. It is believed in the Ministry of the Interior that the fact they occasionally annihilate each other (a shootout in Hotel Yugoslavia or in Cafe `Trozubac' in the centre of Belgrade) is not worth mentioning. The Ministry did not even bother denounce the writing of one daily which said that "the gunman from `Trozubac' is well known and that his name is Goran," although it is an open secret that his name is Luka, a member of an allegedly recently disbanded paramilitary unit. In other words, there is little likelihood that someone will be sentenced and sent to prison.

"Those who work for the State Security cannot resign or do something rash," the above mentioned State Security employee said. "However, if he does, he will receive a threat. If this does not work `a car accident', `a shootout in the underground," or something else will follow. The investigation then stalls or is helped in one way or another and the matter is over with." Over the last several years the monster's appetite has grown. Among those killed are Ljubomir Magas, Ranko Rubezic, Branislav MaticBeli, Knele, Radojica Nikcevic, Zorz Stankovic, Andrija Lakonic (thugs and businesmen who came in the way of ambitions by criminal and political elites), and the deaths of two directors of the furniture producer "Jugodrvo" remain suspicious... The monster's appetite is obviously growing by the day.