EU "did not send demarche over ombudsman"

EU "did not send demarche over ombudsman"

BELGRADE -- The head of Serbia's team for EU membership negotiations has said she had no information that the EC "had sent an act" in connection to the Serbian ombudsman.

Tanja Miscevic added on Wednesday that independent institutions will be discussed during the EU-Serbia talks.

"I have no information that the European Commission has sent any demarche, any act by which it discussed this issue at all," Miscevic told reporter in Krusevac.

She added that the issue of independent bodies is an important one contained in chapter 23 of the membership negotiations, "and will certainly be discussed."

Last week, several MPs of the ruling Serb Progressive Party (SNS) demanded the resignation of Citizens' Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic, claiming that his 2014 report on human rights was "arbitrary and politicized."

The tabloid Informer on April 18 reported that Jankovic's friend Predrag Gojkovic committed suicide on April 1, 1993, in Jankovic's apartment and using his pistol, and alluded that the now ombudsman did not hold a proper license for the firearm.

Jankovic responded by saying that the pistol was duly registered in his name, that the police returned it to him after the investigation, and that he sold it several years later.

Commissioner for Information of Public Importance Rodoljub Sabic on Wednesday called on the Ministry of Interior to publish all information regarding the weapon used in the suicide.

"At the moment we have a situation in which, due to a campaign of some media based on allegations about Jankovic's 'illegal pistol,' his personal dignity is being brought into question, but through him also of an important institution, the citizens...