Serbia Prosecutor to Sue Human Rights Activist

Several hours after Kandic gave the interview, in which she said that someone from the War Crimes Prosecutor's Office received bribes in order to release suspects from custody, the Office issued a statement denying the allegations.

The statement announced that Deputy War Crimes Prosecutor Dragoljub Stankovic would file defamation charges against Kandic.

“The prosecution has assessed that such unfounded and malicious statements by FHP President Natasa Kandic are degrading and damaging to the War Crimes Prosecution.

“Deputy Prosecutor Dragoljub Stankovic was not referred to either by first or last name in the programme, but he is explicitly mentioned in the Humanitarian Law Center’s report…which made him take this step,” writes the announcement.  

In the interview broadcast on Radio B92 on March 10, Kandic, one of Serbia's most prominent human rights activists, said that the Humanitarian Law Centre, an NGO, has information that the War Crimes Prosecution official accepted a bribe.

She refused to name the officer who took the bribe or say which case the alleged incident related to. Kandic explained that the entire case had been described in a report on the War Crime Prosecution’s work which the NGO sent to the government in November last year.

“I’m still waiting for somebody to do something about this,” Kandic told B92.  

However, after the War Crimes Prosecution Office issued a statement saying that Kandic would be called to face trial for alleged defamation, FHP published the entire report on its Web site.

The report, which covers a war crimes case involving alleged crimes committed by 37th Division of Special Police Unit in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, says that Stankovic received bribes in exchange for releasing from custody five police officers accused in the case.

In the document, FHP also writes that witnesses who testified in the war crimes case have been under pressure to give up their statements.

According to the report, Deputy Prosecutor Dragoljub Stankovic advised witnesses to gave up their testimonies, while members of police units tasked with ensuring the witnesses’ safety harassed them.

Kandic has declined to comment on the prosecution's statement that it intends to sue her for defamation.