DM: Ombudsman "will get answers to all questions"

DM: Ombudsman "will get answers to all questions"

BELGRADE -- Sasa Jankovic will get answers to all the questions he asked the Ministry of Defense within the legal deadline, Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic said Thursday.

The ombudsman asked for documents and statements by witnesses in connection with an ongoing investigation into an incident which took place in an area of central Belgrade that was blocked for security reasons during a gay pride march on November 28.

Andrej Vucic, the brother of the Serbian prime minister, and two other persons, accompanied by members of a special military unit, were assaulted.

Gasic told reporters that the Defense Ministry had asked the Republic Public Prosecutor's Office for approval to deliver Jankovic certain documents and had not yet received any response.

"Some of the questions that Jankovic wanted answered have nothing to do with the Prosecutor's Office and they will be answered, but the other questions depend on what the Prosecutor's Office has to say," the minister said.

Commenting on an interpretation of the law according to which Jankovic is allowed access to all documents, including those declared a military secret, Gasic said he did not concur with such an interpretation.

He said that the Republican Public Prosecutor's Office had to give their opinion concerning the Ombudsman's requests in connection with part of the documentation he had demanded from the Ministry of Defense and the Military Security Agency (VBA).

Jankovic's stated in his request that he wanted to check certain information that he had received, according to which the VBA had been collecting evidence and questioning witnesses about the incident, and to know if the Agency informed the...