Serbia MPs Accuse Ombudsman of Political Ambitions

MPs from Serbia's ruling Progressive Party, SNS, and the nationalist Serbian Radical Party, SRS, slated Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic during the parliamentary discussion of his report for 2015 on Wednesday, claiming he was not doing his job but was acting like a politician.

Jankovic was accused of using his office to advance his political ambitions to be an opposition presidential candidate next year.

"This is the arbitrary report of a politically exposed person," the head of the SNS parliamentary group, Aleksandar Martinovic, said, adding that Jankovic was not interested in the rights of citizens but in his own personal promotion.

Jankovic was also criticized after his report on 2014, when he described the state of human rights in Serbia as far from satisfactory.

Jankovic then said the public administration and judiciary remained under political influence while important laws were being adopted in emergency procedure without due public discussion.

Shortly after, the daily newspaper Informer, which supports the governing Progressive Party, launched a campaign against him on a daily basis.

Jankovic has also come in for attack for writing a critical report on the case of the demolitions in Belgrade's Savamala area, claiming that police refused on purpose to respond to calls from people who saw around 30 masked men equipped with diggers tearing down buildings on the riverbank on the night between April 24 and 25 and allegedly beating up local residents.

Jankovic has repeatedly come under fire for his criticism of the government. Attacks sometimes come directly from officials and sometimes from the pro-government media.

On Wednesday, SNS and SRS MPs also criticized Jankovic for not being present during the...