Yesterday, the police state detained and then released Dejan Ilić. It seems the public outcry was such that keeping him in custody turned out not to pay off. Dejan was not released because he did not commit a crime; just as he was not arrested for committing one. He was released because the public defended him, and he was arrested because he said publicly what the public was thinking.
And I’m not just referring to the interview on Nova S on March 29, which is the official reason for the arrest. I am sure that every free and thinking person irritates our enraged leader. But he is especially irritated by the one who recently wrote an article titled “Arrest Vučić”. Enraged, he said to his subjects: I’ll show you who will be arrested! Find something on him! And gave an imperial thumbs down.
But Ilić’s arrest is not the solution. “Arrest Vučić” was chanted at all protests. Vučić is clearly powerless because he cannot arrest the entire nation. That’s why he is focusing on individuals who only convey the message. Don’t shoot the messenger, Vučić.
When it comes to the “accusations” against Dejan Ilić, it is difficult to seriously comment on them, but circumstances force us to do so. Even after his release from the police station, some kind of sloppy criminal proceedings will still be conducted against Dejan, he will be forced to defend himself against these spurious accusations, while those responsible for the state’s crimes walk free, unburdened by the accusations they so richly deserve.
According to the prosecution, Dejan Ilić caused panic by making false claims. The alleged false claim was his statement: “You have a choice – either you will open the door for these people to leave power, which means a transitional government, or you will accept the fact that there will be blood in the streets, that we will lose I don’t know how many and whose lives, in order to get rid of them.”
So we have two essential elements. First of all, whoever the prosecutor’s office works for, it’s still a mistake that in their statement they identify an opinion as a false claim. Dejan Ilić did not claim that something had happened, he expressed his judgment, that is, his opinion about what alternatives lie currently before Serbia. Claims are always related to facts, something that can be verified. And precisely because they can be verified, claims can be classified as true or false.
Ilić did not use assertions in his statement, but presented a value judgment. His opinion. Value judgments and opinion cannot be qualified as false; you can only agree or disagree with them. And since the rulers did not agree, they arrested Ilić, along with his opinion.
Another important element is panic. For Dejan to be prosecuted for this, his false claims had to have caused panic among citizens. If we look at the recording of the morning show Probudi se (at the moment it has 39 thousand views) and the comments of citizens, we could safely say that none of the 175 commentators seem to be in a panic. Most of them completely agree with the guest and praise his eloquence. A less exact analysis can be conducted on social media, but Ilić’s guest appearance was undoubtedly popular two weeks ago. Again – people mostly shared his appearance with praise and agreement, without any signs of panic.
It seems that the only panic, and that is the panic at the thought of transitional government, is among the Progressives, and most of all the president of Serbia. That’s why the police called a publisher and columnist, a free citizen, around midnight to come to the police station immediately. Was it because the prosecutor on duty at the time was Marica Arsenović, who is also the secretary of the Association of Judges and Prosecutors, an association whose president is the Chief Public Prosecutor of VJT Nenad Stefanović? Is it true that no one, except for Stefanović’s associate, was willing to take up this scandalous work?
And here we come to the main plot. The President of Serbia, either from the national frequencies or from his social networks, is trying to convince us that with one word he can make arrests happen – for sound cannons, transitional governments, illegal recordings. Or that, also with a single word, he can stop the proceedings – for example against Goran Vesić. It is true that the president’s statements affect criminal proceedings, but it is obvious that they affect specific individuals whose names are widely known and whose work and cases are closely monitored.
Let us recall that recently over 600 judges and prosecutors signed a letter in which they declare that the President of Serbia humiliates and subjugates them and that they will not give in to his threats. That is a dangerous number for Vučić, who knows that there are only around three thousand acting judges and prosecutors.
The president is angry with students, professors, teachers, pupils, but now he is especially angry with judges and prosecutors. He thought he could issue any order to any of them; it turns out that’s no longer the case. Things are changing. At least one opposition politician was not arrested (for similar reasons as Ilić), despite his arrest being planned at the Progressive court.
This is precisely the biggest danger for this regime – the realization that they do not have full control over the criminal prosecution authorities. This means not only that these authorities can refuse to arrest journalists and opposition members. They can decide to arrest those in power, it there is sufficient degree of suspicion that they have committed some punishable act. That is the mirror image that Vučić is trying to destroy with numerous unjust arrests. He is trying to assure himself that he still has everything under control.
Translated by Marijana Simić
Peščanik.net, 12.04.2025.
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