From the first mention of constitutional changes in the public sphere, international organizations have meticulously overseen these reforms, being the most instrumental in shaping the narrative that these changes are a necessary condition for Serbia’s progress towards the European Union. Presented as crucial for alignment with European standards, these reforms were supported and financed by numerous international bodies. The undeniable fact that foreign entities play a significant role in shaping both internal and external policies in Serbia requires clarification. Namely, this influence is exerted primarily through the civil sector, specifically through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and with the help of their agents on the ground.
(Un)Conditional Support
International organizations such as the European Commission, OSCE, and various foundations provided significant funds for the drafting and promotion of constitutional changes. This enabled the engagement of experts, the conduct of research, and the organization of public campaigns. However, this support was not unconditional. In return, it was necessary to satisfy the interests of the financiers, which did not align with the interests of the Serbian judiciary and the citizens of Serbia. As a result of this unofficial agreement, foreign states and organizations achieved significant influence in the appointment of judges and prosecutors, which directly contradicts the principle of Serbia’s sovereignty.
In the first article written on this topic, we mentioned Supreme Court Judge Dragana Boljević, who for years received substantial financial support from Western embassies and numerous funds that did not hide their disdain for the Serbian people. Within the Society of Judges of Serbia, where Judge Boljević served as president for years, the draft on which the constitutional changes were based was financed and printed. However, the NGO Association of Prosecutors of Serbia, led for many years by Prosecutor Goran Ilić, who was also a member of the working group for constitutional amendments, was equally active in lobbying efforts.
Captain of the western establishment
“Captain of the first class,” senior or one of those initially recruited by the Western establishment into their ranks, Prosecutor Goran Ilić became known for his role in judicial processes following the changes on October 5, 2000. As the Deputy Public Prosecutor, he was responsible for writing indictments against individuals from the former regime, who, despite the lack of concrete evidence of corruption, were targeted by the new authorities. His role was to “dig up” any evidence that could justify criminal prosecution, often without real basis, resulting in prolonged and painful court proceedings for the accused.
An example of such judicial abuse is the case of Slobodan Šarenac, the general director of the state company Inex Interexport Belgrade. Šarenac was indicted without any valid evidence and spent 15 years in court before being acquitted of all charges in 2015. The Court of Appeals upheld this acquittal, but the state had to cover the enormous legal costs for the lawyers. This case is not isolated. Ilić was involved in many other scandalous processes where charges of abuse of official position and corruption were politically motivated. Examples include indictments against high-ranking officials for alleged misuse of public funds and corruption, where many of these indictments were later dismissed due to lack of evidence or conflicts with actual legal standards.
Long career in career destruction
Political pressure played a significant role in the work of prosecutors. As Ilić himself stated, prosecutors were often forced to file indictments under political pressure, creating a public perception of corruption in the judiciary. In many cases, the media served as a tool for conveying political messages, exerting additional pressure on judges and prosecutors.
Despite all these challenges and defeats, which would have cost any other their position, Ilić not only continued to build his career in the judiciary but also advanced over time. The question is not unfounded – was he really a loser, or was he, on the contrary, performing his job exceptionally well, thus fulfilling the interests of those who placed him in that position and entrusted him with these tasks?
Practice shows, and to a significant extent due to Goran Ilić’s efforts, the extent to which political pressures can undermine the judicial process and destroy individuals’ lives and careers. Ilić did this for over 15 years.
Incidentally present?
Besides being known in his practice for initiating futile indictments that destroyed the lives and careers of political opponents, Goran Ilić began to appear as an actor in scandals, albeit peripheral and noticeable only to careful readers. How many more scandals would the media have recorded if he had not enjoyed such protection is unknown, but his ties with the mafia are evident from his presence at a celebration with drug dealers from Novi Pazar. Ilić is in the same council as Dukić; however, unlike Stanislav Dukić, who was pushed into the spotlight by the media he controlled and then abandoned after the scandal, Ilić remained protected as an incidental minor figure.
Dukić was previously known for controversial actions and alleged ties with criminals, including revealing details from investigations related to mafia conflicts, leading to acquittals for the suspects. This was enough to remove responsibility from other actors in this affair and to make one person a scapegoat.
Goran Ilić, as the deputy president of the State Council of Prosecutors, was a close associate and friend of Stanislav Dukić. His role in these scandals and close relationships with other high-ranking prosecutors, such as Vidaković and Kulezić, illustrate how influence and power are used to maintain and strengthen personal and political interests at the expense of justice, and how certain systems are built within the existing system – all for their personal gain and the gain of those whose interests they represent. By definition, these interests did not align with those of ordinary Serbian citizens.
Recognize the organizations?
What certainly strengthened the position of this prosecutor is the professional NGO, namely the Association of Prosecutors of Serbia, where Goran Ilić is the founder and long-time, currently honorary president. Within the organization of this association, which led the lobbying for constitutional changes, there is a large number of prosecutors from all over Serbia, and the membership is even larger.
The Association of Prosecutors of Serbia played a key role in promoting constitutional changes through its organizing committee. These prosecutors, besides their professional activities, were very active in the media space and as frequent guests on pro-Western media, where they were provided space for lobbying activities, conducting media propaganda in favor of reform initiatives, i.e., in favor of those on whose task they worked. According to available data from the APR, the Association of Prosecutors of Serbia handled more than 14 million dinars last year, of which about 200,000 came from membership fees, and the rest from donations, subsidies, and similar sources.
Although we contacted the donors of this association, we did not receive any responses even after seven days. A fairly solid insight into the work of this professional association is offered by the list of their partners and donors whose interests this NGO serves:
- SDC – Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
- Belgrade Open School and the Kingdom of Sweden
- OSCE Mission – Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
- Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia
- EIDHR – European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights
- Council of Europe
- Norwegian Embassy and Balkan Trust for Democracy
- Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
- USAID – United States Agency for International Development
- Open Society Foundation
- British Embassy in the Republic of Serbia
- Canadian Judicial Reform Project in Serbia
- AECID – Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation
- ABA CEELI/EAR – European Agency for Reconstruction
- Delegation of the European Commission
- CIDA/Genivar Canada – Serbia Judicial Reform Project
- Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Embassy of the United States of America
- Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain
A quick glance at the list reveals that the sponsors of this NGO are the same ones who finance the Society of Judges of Serbia and that, despite all the legal provisions prohibiting this type of influence on individuals holding public functions, whether prosecutorial or judicial, it represents nothing more than dead letters for them. After the reforms, when the prosecution gained its independent branch of power, not only is the law not respected, nor is the will of the people considered, but they are there solely to fulfill the interests of those who finance them.
Bought for the long term
Regarding whether the changes in the judicial system truly contributed to its efficiency and independence, as advocated by proponents of constitutional reforms such as Goran Ilić, Dragana Boljević, Vladan Petrov, Vladislav Đorđević, and others, or weakened the sovereignty of the judicial system, and thus the state of Serbia, a university professor who once warned of the consequences of these changes shared his opinion with our portal. In his view, besides the fact that prosecutors and judges are financed through their NGOs, the reforms also made a direct intrusion into the Serbian prosecution. He also adds that there are many ways for subtle influence-buying.
“The prosecution has especially been compromised. The Republic Prosecutor’s Office, in particular. Send a request for public significance to the Republic Prosecutor, ask how many international projects there are, what their names are, and who the prosecution staff are on those projects, and everything will become clear if you get the information. In the Republic Prosecutor’s Office, you have foreign prosecutors just like there were foreign officers in the General Staff in the past. Foreign prosecutors review cases and give instructions on what to do. This is all through projects of the states that send them: England, the Netherlands, America, Germany. Whether it’s financed by the USA, the Norwegian or Dutch agency for international aid, is less important. The essence is that foreigners issue subtle orders to one of the holders of power in the Republic of Serbia on what and how to do. These are subtle forms of corruption. They bring money into the prosecution, the Republic Prosecutor approves the project, pays them through fees, and then hires dear people on the same project as collaborators. They award them generous stipends. These projects are long-term and last for four to five years, but they ensure that people are bought for a long time.”
How to become dependent?
Our interlocutor emphasizes that corruption has advanced so much that it is almost impossible to define it as such since prosecutors and judges are so indoctrinated during trainings and projects that they do not see these subtle methods of influence as violations but as the implementation of the law.
“They indoctrinate them for small money. Believers are made for small money, not for large sums. For large sums, independent people are made, people who have an attitude. And with small amounts, a traitor is made. Do you know where to look for corruption? How does a drug dealer work? The first dose of drugs is free, and the second and third, and then when you get hooked, then they get more expensive. In the end, you pay instead of him paying you for getting sick and deteriorating. This is how it works; they give our judges small amounts of money to make them addicts. When they give them small amounts for insignificant projects, they keep coming back for more and thus gradually become dependent.”
Daughter on the project, father at the head of the court
Regarding the violation of Article 149 of the Constitution of Serbia, which states that the judicial function is permanent and that a judge must not perform another public or professional function, nor professional activity, further supporting the principle of independence, our interlocutor says that this is a dead letter, especially considering all the manipulative techniques and loopholes in the law through which this subtle influence is paid for.
“That is not another function; it is an honorarium, right?! He received an honorarium, a stipend for a project. They do not give them monthly money, nor do they open an account for the influence to be seen. I repeat, the mechanisms of influence are subtle and not open and naked. For example, they suggest to a judge or prosecutor: Your son or daughter is ideal for this project; don’t miss it. These are refined pressure systems where they put their children on the project. The former president of the Supreme Court’s daughter was on the project, not him. He is too smart to take money after which we could remove him, to say he is corrupt because any undue influence on a judge’s freedom of decision makes him unworthy. They do not take money directly. They corrupt children, mistresses, lovers… but mostly through children, people are very weak on children.”
Catalog for western patrons
However, associations like the Association of Prosecutors of Serbia, which serve the Western sector, also extract money, often on some banal trivialities that they present as projects, such as creating graphs. Besides various publications, which are all in the service of indoctrinating professionals to more easily cross the boundary, i.e., change their attitude towards the state, the people, and whom they actually serve, these associations also serve as a kind of catalog for Western patrons from which they choose new collaborators and later workers.
Serbian Lauras
One of the special skills acquired by some workers in the judiciary through training, and others displaying a natural talent for it, is media manipulation. Like all agents of foreign interests, they are not left to their own devices; around them and for them, an entire para-state apparatus has been prepared, consisting of media, other NGOs, political parties, and often numerous manipulated supporters.
How deep the foreign influence goes was evident two years ago when two prosecutors from the Association of Prosecutors of Serbia, Bojana Savović and Jasmina Paunović, were transferred to different positions. It recently turned out that this was justified, as after their transfer, in the case of the malpractices in EPS, the damage discovered was much greater than when they were leading and planning to conclude the case.
After the transfer, the entire pro-Western apparatus in the judiciary and the media, then the entire NGO and political sector financed through the same power centers as the Association of Prosecutors of Serbia, rose up. Protests were organized, and a public image was created of two “honest” prosecutors removed so that Chief Public Prosecutor Nenad Stefanović could hide the case in a drawer and acquit the suspects. Within less than two days, the prosecutors became national heroines, dubbed “Lauras” after Laura Kövesi, the Romanian prosecutor who was indeed a heroine in the fight against corruption.
In Hill’s embrace
The campaign was designed to capture public attention for days. Tribunes were organized on the topic, and attacks on the Chief Public Prosecutor did not cease. The pressure eased a bit when a photo appeared in the media showing the two false Lauras posing in an embrace with the American ambassador, who offered them support, just as he recently did in the case of Dinko Gruhonjić.
This example of an aggressive campaign in which all the resources of the pro-Western apparatus are engaged is just an indicator of what happens when an influential agent is targeted. The mentioned prosecutors, throughout their careers, have been involved in numerous scandals and violations of ethical and legal codes. Their modest biographies include several disciplinary proceedings, not only for their behavior and threats against colleagues who did not enjoy the support of such “powerful” mentors but also for corruption. Finally, it should be added that they have openly engaged in politics through the recently founded association ProGlas, which is also a product of the same sponsors who financed their training and the professional associations of which they are members. The scriptwriter of this episode in the Serbian prosecution, which shows no signs of ending and in which the number of self-proclaimed “Lauras” is only increasing, is none other than Goran Ilić.
