Milica Stojanović, who hit and seriously injured a student with her car during a protest in Belgrade in January, has been pardoned by a decision of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, KRIK was told by the Third Basic Court. Vučić announced this decision last month, and it was the last in a series of good news for Stojanović – as her criminal offense was first mitigated, and then she was released from custody.
“She did not deserve that (trial) in any way, and it is terrible for me that as a president who has not issued a single pardon in nine years until a few weeks ago, I now have to correct the injustice inflicted by prosecutors and courts,” said President Aleksandar Vučić in the middle of last month, commenting on the proceedings against Milica Stojanović, who was accused of hitting a student with a car at a protest in Belgrade.
Vučić kept his promise – he made a decision to pardon Stojanović, after which the court dismissed the indictment against her on August 1st, KRIK writes.
This completely acquitted Stojanović of the criminal offense she committed. This move is not a surprise, given that earlier decisions were made in Stojanović’s favor.
Thus, although she was initially charged with attempted murder, for which she could have received a prison sentence of 10 or more years, the chief prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, Nenad Stefanović, mitigated her criminal offense to – a serious crime against public safety.
This meant that she could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison, and the case was transferred to a lower court – the Third Basic Court in Belgrade.
The change in the criminal offense was preceded by a change of prosecutor – Stefanović took the case from prosecutor Jelena Belopavlović, who had initially charged Stojanović with attempted murder. This prosecutor was at the time under attack from tabloids who, among other things, accused her of being part of the “Serbian judiciary that has seceded from the state, laws, rights and justice,” KRIK writes.
Stojanović was then released from custody, where she had been since January.
This is not the only case in which the president pardoned attackers on students who have been protesting since November last year due to the collapse of a canopy from the railway station building in Novi Sad, when 16 people died. He recently pardoned four activists of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party who were on trial for dislocating a student’s jaw in Novi Sad at the end of January.
Since November 1st last year, students have been organizing 16-minute street blockades throughout Serbia and paying silent tribute to those who died in the collapse of the canopy. They soon started blocking faculties, demanding accountability from those who were in charge of the reconstruction of the canopy, as well as the prosecution of the attackers on their colleagues during the blockades. Their demands have not been met so far.
MORE TOPICS:
Source: KRIK / N1, Photo: Katarina Drajic / ATAImages