SCANDALOUS DECISION OF THE COURT IN ŠAPAC: Verdict annulled against gendarme who beat female partner and held a gun to her head!

The Higher Court in Šabac has annulled the verdict against Branislav T., a member of the Gendarmery detachment, who was convicted of endangering safety and stalking his emotional partner I. A. The video of horrific violence disturbed the public last year, and lawyer Vladimir Terzić stated for the Nova.rs portal that the first-instance verdict was passed in June last year, and that it was annulled in March this year after it was decided upon by the panel of the Higher Court.

“By that verdict, a single sentence of a year and a half in prison was imposed for the criminal offenses of endangering safety and stalking. The Higher Court took the stance that at this moment the verdict is not clear enough and does not contain sufficient reasons, which is why it was ordered that the trial for both criminal offenses be repeated in its entirety,” Terzić says for the Nova.rs portal.

He points out that the Higher Court in its decision calls into question the criminal offense of stalking.

“Endangering safety, I hope, is not in dispute, because the off-duty police officer threatened his emotional partner in a monstrous way, and we saw the recordings everywhere. However, due to an error by the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Šabac, the act was not qualified as abuse and torture under a heavier paragraph, along with stalking,” the lawyer states.

Our interviewee states that in these proceedings the defense defended itself by claiming that there are messages from I. A. showing that she did not always refuse contact, which is very disputed evidence.

“Reading those messages, it could be seen that they were taken out of context. However, it was neither proven that those are her messages, nor that they are authentic and originate from her. We brought into question those messages, which were submitted only in printed form. They can be altered using artificial intelligence, and expert evaluation was never performed. Such messages cannot be evidence,” says the lawyer of the injured party.

He compared this case with another case of Marija Jakišić who was convicted twice in Kruševac.

“She was convicted on suspicion of stalking the chief public prosecutor in Kruševac via social networks. The Higher Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade conducted the proceedings, but found no criminal act. And then the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Kruševac took over the prosecution. The Basic Court tried the case, and the Higher Court confirmed the verdict. Maja Jakišić gave an interview for ‘Slavija info’, where she spoke about her case, before the verdict became final, and the court subsequently determined that by doing so she allegedly violated the restraining and communication order. In that interview, she criticized the work of the alleged victim and the prosecution, without directly addressing him. The Higher Court in Kruševac imposed a fine of 150,000 dinars on her for one act, and for the other a sentence of five months in prison. At the same time, nobody noticed that Marija Jakišić gave that interview before the verdict against her became final,” Terzić explains.

He emphasizes that such court practices represent a kind of legal violence.

“At the same time, in the case of I. A., although we have a recording of monstrous violence where everything can be seen, that is not a sufficiently established factual state and sufficient reasons for the decision were not provided. Such legal violence in Serbia is unprecedented in the annals of Serbian judiciary,” lawyer Vladimir Terzić tells the Nova.rs portal.

To recall, last year the Nova.rs portal published the news about the horrific violence suffered by I. A. in Šabac when her emotional partner Bratislav T. attacked her in a venue, and at one point pulled out and cocked a gun and held it to her head.

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