After Saturday’s murder in Belgrade of the high-profile lawyer Dragoslav Ognjanovic, Serbia’s Bar Association has called for a state commission to probe attacks on lawyers.
The President of the Serbian Bar Association, Viktor Gostiljac, on Monday said that lawyers would demand the formation of a state commission to investigate attacks on their profession.
He spoke after Dragoslav Ognjanovic, a well-known lawyer, was killed on Saturday in front of his apartment building in Belgrade’s Novi Beograd neighbourhood. His assailants have not been identified or apprehended as yet.
“We will insist on the formation of an investigative team that will include representatives of the prosecution, the police and lawyers,” Gostiljac told a press conference in Belgrade.
Jugoslav Tintor, president of one faction of the divided Bar Association of Belgrade, said the team could be modeled after the currently operating commission for solving cases of killed journalists.
“We think this is a good model,” Tintor said.
Representatives of the Bar Association noted three murders of lawyers and 50 other attacks over the last ten years, 95 per cent of which remain unsolved, they said.
Gostiljac also said lawyers across Serbia were starting a one-week strike on Monday designed to remind the authorities that an attack on lawyers is an attack on the state.
He added that the Bar Association would have a meeting with the Justice Minister on Tuesday and with the Interior Minister by the end of the week.
At the same press conference, a lawyer from Bosnia and Herzegovina expressed solidarity on behalf of his bar association and called for regional cooperation between lawyers’ associations.
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