SDS proposes motion to dismiss President Nikolic

BELGRADE - A group of MPs of the Social Democratic Party (SDS), Together for Serbia and the Greens of Serbia have put forward a motion to dismiss Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, over a statement by Nikolic that they claim was a violation the Constitution.

Janko Veselinovic, deputy head of the SDS group in the Serbian parlaiment, has told reporters in the parliament that the impeachment motion was placed over Nikolic's statements to Belgrade-based daily Politika in which he commented on Serbia's war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic speaking about plans to launch an investigation against Ljubisa Dikovic, chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces.

Speaking for Politika, Nikolic among other things said that the war crimes prosecutor should not be "a pawn of The Hague Tribunal, nor a hand signing decrees arriving from The Hague."

"In this way, he (Nikolic) he violated several articles of the Constitution - Article 4, which says that the government system shall be based on the division of power into legislative, executive and judiciary, Article 149, which talks about the independence of the judiciary, and Article 156, which guarantees the independence of the public prosecutor and the prosecution in general," SDS MP Veselinovic said.

Veselinovic added that the motion had also been presented to other MP groups, which he had urged to join them in defending the Constitution.

Photo Tanjug Video, camera operator Igor Skendzic