The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection in his letter addressed to the mayor of Belgrade called on the city authorities to make all the relevant information available concerning the circumstances under which in the night of 25 April the demolition of Savamala's district on the corners of Hercegovacka and Mostarska Streets was conducted.
According to the information that the Commissioner obtained from the citizens, about thirty masked people armed with baseball bats and equipped with three diggers pulled down the buildings used by private individuals in the area of around 1,000 square meters. They had previously tied the night guard and took away his mobile phone.
According to the same information, the police, although having been called, refused to come and conduct an investigation, directing the citizens to the Communal police with the explanation that the Communal police had taken part in the demolitions. The Communal police, however, denied the allegations of the police.
The Commissioner considers that independently of the existence of a legal base for the demolition, also called in question by the citizens, even under the assumption of the existence of the faultless legal base, the circumstances under which the demolitions were performed certainly represent the information of public importance, since it is completely unclear which reasons could explain that the realization of any legal project is implemented by anonymous masked persons at night, by depriving other people of freedom, tying them and taking away their mobile phones.
The Commissioner considers of great public importance that the city officials remove doubts concerning this case by disclosing the information and, if the present doubts in illegal procedures, i.e. the violations of human rights are confirmed, take measures against the responsible persons.
The Commissioner also called on the city officials to make information about the demolitions available on the proactive grounds in the future, having in mind possible interest of the public for the announced further demolitions in the same area ( "Miksaliste" refugee center).
The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic on the occasion of the tomorrow's World Press Freedom Day, in his letters addressed to the presidents of the Journalists Association of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia (NUNS) and the Independent Journalists Association of Vojvodina (NDNV) congratulated all the journalists of Serbia on their day, 03 May.