The Nova.rs portal said on Wednesday that Kosovo Serb former politician Milan Radoicic’s lawyer Goran Petronijevic has close links to a regime-backed judiciary association.

An unnamed source told the portal that the head of the Association of Judges and Prosecutors – an NGO which is actually controlled by senior prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic – Novi Sad Higher Court Judge Ivana Josifovic is very close to Petronijevic. “Stefanovic also makes no secret of being close to Petronijevic who is a regular guest at his parties… and was even presented an award at one of them,” the source said.

The Association of Judges and Prosecutors issued a statement denying the Nova.rs story. It said that Petronijevic is Judge Josifovic’s spouse and adding that the lawyer represents a number of clients in the most difficult cases which is why he represents Radoicic. The statement also claimed that a negative campaign was being waged against the association and Prosecutor Stefanovic.

Nova published pictures of Petronijevic receiving the award and at parties organized by the association.

According to experts that Nova.rs talked to, there was suspicion from the start that the Serbian judiciary would not go through the proper procedures with Radoicic who was released from custody on Wednesday. Those suspicions were als confirmed by Petronijevic’s claims that his client could not be charged with any crime by the Serbian judiciary.

An unnamed source said that the Radoicic case confirms the unprecedented conflict of interest which has been going on for years because prosecutors and judges have been sitting in the same assocaition.

Radoicic himself has been known to be in close contact with at least one judge now sitting in Belgrade who was in office in Kosovo.