Serbian Parliament Adopts 'Tijana's Law'

Serbia's parliament on Thursday amended the Police Act to ensure that the police search for a missing child begins right after parents notify the disappearance, rather than waiting for 48 hours, as was the law until now.

The law change has been named "Tijana's Law" in homage to Tijana Juric, a teenager whose disappearance last July and murder stunned the country.

On the night of July 25 and 26, the 15-year-old was kidnapped by Dragan Djuric, a 34-year-old butcher from the Belgrade neighbourhood of Surcin. Twelve days later her dead body was found buried in the area of Sombor, in the north of Serbia.

Shortly after, two more girls were raped and killed - Ivana Podrascic, aged 14, and Dragana Ciric, aged 18.

Igor Juric, Tijana's father, submitted a proposal to amend the Police Act on August 30, 2014. Tens of thousands of people on Facebook gave support to the initiative.

The protest was supported by the MP Sasa Mirkovic, who submitted the proposal to amend the Law on Police to parliament last December. In Thursday's vote, 183 MPs voted for the change to the Police Act while only one was against.

On Thursday, Juric on his Twitter account said that that was just the beginning and that other things needed changing, because "we do not want any more laws carrying the names of children.

"The law is adopted. After a big fight for few years, we have done a great thing. We showed that silence is sometimes much stronger, louder and more powerful than violence," Juric said.