Source: "Blic"
Commissioner’s Request to State Prosecutorial Council
Two members of the state Prosecutorial Council held a meeting at the SIA premises dealing with collection of data on eligibility of candidates who applied for prosecutors
Commissioner for Information Rodoljub Sabic requested from the State Prosecutorial Council its opinion about the authenticity of minutes from the session of this authority held 16 months ago, the content of which raises suspicion that information held by the Security-Information Agency (SIA) were used in the general reappointment of prosecution officials.
The document titled “Minutes from the tenth regular session of the State Prosecutorial Council held on 3 November 2009”, No. 10/2009-01 was posted several days ago at the internet address zajednicapravda.wordpress.com. It inter alia states that two members of the State Prosecutorial Council held a meeting at the Security-Information Agency premises dealing with collection of data on eligibility of candidates who applied following a call for appointment of deputy public prosecutors and that they should hold another meeting. The same minutes also state the following: “Names will not be disclosed during the receipt of information, but the Council will be notified about existence of circumstances which could disqualify an applicant from appointment.” “Early this weekend, on Saturday 13 March to be exact, my associates drew my attention to this document posted on the Internet. This document merits utmost attention because it will undoubtedly raise suspicion that unlawful processing of personal data occurred during reappointment of judicial office holders. This is why I submitted the request to the State Prosecutorial Council to notify me without delay about the authenticity of and all relevant facts in connection with the document concerned”, Commissioner for Information Rodoljub Sabic said yesterday for “Blic” daily.
He reminded that as early as at the beginning of the previous year, in connection with the publicly raised suspicion that information held by SIA might have been used in general appointment of judicial office holders, he warned the public that such processing of personal data would be unlawful.
“Suspicion that this happened also caused a sharp response from the expert community. Certain complaints against violation of the Law on Personal Data protection were also submitted. Persons authorized by the Commissioner, inspectors, then performed supervision at the High Judicial Council premises. Upon examination of extensive documentation, minutes of proceedings and documents on general or confidential communication of the High Judicial Council no evidence was found which would confirm such data processing had been performed. At that time, supervision was not performed at the State Prosecutorial Council premises. One of the reasons for this is the fact that no specific complaint has been filed against violation of personal data protection by the State Prosecutorial Council and at the same time several members of the State Prosecutorial Council reassured me personally that information held by SIA were not used in general appointment of prosecutors as well”, said Mr. Sabic.
Interfile: State Prosecutorial Council will cooperate with the Commissioner
“The State Prosecutorial Council has not yet received the request from the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance. The State Prosecutorial Council will cooperate with Commissioner Sabic because the public has the right to know what public authorities do”, said Mr. Bruno Vekaric, spokesman of the State Prosecutorial Council, yesterday for “Blic” daily.