Prosecutor classifies as secret information about donors for Serbia finance minister's children

The anti-corruption agency asked the prosecution to look into the case, but they provided no response i.e. said the information regarding the case was classified.

"The aforementioned report of the Anti-corruption Agency in the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office is classified as strictly confidential," said Nenad Stefanovic, chief public prosecutor.

The questions were sent to the Prosecutor's Office by a member of parliament of the Green-Left Front, with the answer making this law professor confused and angry.

"In a very obvious way, the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office protects the interests of an official, that is, it protects the interests of the ruling party, which we call a criminal octopus. There is an interest of the public in knowing whether this high-ranking state official is a criminal or not," said MP Jelena Jerinic.

The confidentiality mark is put on a case only if the information can seriously compromise the state, which data on who pays for the education of the minister's children are not, according to lawyer Rodoljub Sabic.

"That level of 'strictly confidential information' is related to the possible release of information that can cause serious damage to the interests of the Republic of Serbia. Not only from the point of view of lawyers, but also from the point of view of laymen, it is completely unclear how the prosecutor could recognize the possible serious damage to the interests of the Republic of Serbia," said Sabic.

The case came again into the spotlight at the beginning of May when investigative media outlet KRIK revealed that the donors for the education of the minister's children are companies from exotic offshore zones, managed by, among others, partners of companies close to the authorities, or Sinisa Mali himself. The journalist who discovered this story said that the prosecutor's office had previously launched investigations, but that they remained in drawer.

"It seems that they won't even allow us to try to investigate something. I think it's already at a level where they are absolutely not interested," said KRIK journalist Milica Vojinovic.

Investigative journalists regularly report stories that readers tell them could serve as indictments, but none of the people they've covered have ever been prosecuted following their revelations.

"They absolutely ignored, for years, all these cases of people from the top of the government. And the more powerful you are in the state, there is less chance you will ever be on the prosecutor's desk," stressed Vojinovic.

What is it called when the institutions that are supposed to control the government work in their interest?

"To use criminal-law terminology, they are their accomplices," underlined Jerinic.