Source"Blic"
Mr. Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, imposed on the Higher Court of Belgrade two fines in the total amount of RSD 200,000 because this judicial instance refused to act in accordance with his ruling and issue a copy of an audio and video recording to lawyer Vladimir Drecun, counsel to one of the defendants before the Special Court.
This is the highest fine the Commissioner has imposed on a court in Serbia and also the maximum fine this regulatory authority has at its disposal for execution of its decisions.
”In my relatively short practice so far I have imposed fines on judicial authorities on several occasions. But I have imposed the maximum fine of 200,000 dinars only in this case”, said Mr. Sabic for “Blic” daily.
The first page of this case has been written in autumn last year, when court appointed expert Slobodan Jovicic said during the main hearing that he had to prepare new transcripts of audio recording because those submitted to him by the court were useless for expert evaluation. Mr. Jovicic’s assessment was also confirmed by two court appointed experts hired by the defense who prepared new transcripts.
After that, the lawyer requested assistance from the Commissioner for Information who ordered the Court by his ruling to honor the request of the defense. The Court failed to execute the ruling and the Commissioner submitted again the same order under penalty of a fine in the amount of 20,000 dinars. Since the first fine gave no results, the Commissioner warned the Court he would impose a new, higher fine in the amount of 180,000 dinars if it fails to submit audio and video recordings to the lawyer within 48 hours. This warning also had no effect, so the Commissioner imposed the maximum fine, determined additional time limit of two days for submission of the requested material and informed the Court he would request from the Government to enforce the ruling. In response to all this, the Higher Court lodged an appeal with the Administrative Court and requested cancellation of the Commissioner’s ruling and delay of the order for submission of audio and video recordings pending the completion of administrative proceedings.
As “Blic” daily learned yesterday at the Administrative Court, the appeal of the Higher Court of Belgrade was rejected on 24 February 2011 as inadmissible.
