Professor of the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade, Zoran R. Tomic, stated, speaking about the recent pardons of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, that such a pardon – “is not a pure discretionary political move”.
“Regarding the recent wave of ‘pardons’ – in the form of abolition, exemption from criminal prosecution by the President of the Republic – this and such a pardon as an individual act is not, according to the letter and spirit of the regulations, a pure discretionary political move. A smaller, but indispensable part of its substance has a preceding mandatory legal nature,” Tomic wrote in an author’s text for today’s edition of the Danas newspaper.
When this act is undertaken “ex officio” by the head of state, on his (own) initiative, and not at the request of the person in question, the professor states that a reasoned proposal from the Ministry of Justice is necessary, that is, the Minister of Justice initiates the pardon procedure on that occasion.
He added that a pardon/abolition, according to the Law on Pardons, is illegal if the relevant minister does not even initiate the procedure in question, and the President of the Republic still issues an abolitionary pardon.
It is also illegal, as he stated, if in the initiated pardon procedure, the corresponding proposal of the relevant ministry is completely missing.
“If the relevant proposal exists, but is not at all or is not appropriately explained, is not properly supported by convincing reasons – and those of a non-political nature – and thus, consequently, the act of the President of the Republic is not consistently and truly argued, in the spirit of justice and fairness, in the name of nobility and humanity,” Tomic added.
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Source: N1, Photo: Kurir / Petar Aleksić