Can members of Parliament be charged with criminal offenses without arguments and consequences

Charges made by members of Parliament against citizens, political opponents, former and current officials remain unresponsive, even though they relate to criminal offenses.

As a result, those who are innocently accused remain permanently slandered. Likewise, the possible guilt remains unspecified.

Some members of Government are facing this problem too, asking the prosecution to investigate allegations from the parliamentary debate. However, the only way to get the prosecution to act, would be to file a criminal complaint, but there is another problem - a person who reports himselfalthough he knowshe is not guilty, would commit the crime of false reporting.

It is also not uncommon for members of Parliamentto accuse those whose public appearances or work they do not like, as recently happened to opinion pollster Zoran Gavrilovic and the former Commissioner for Information, during the parliamentary debate on the institution's work. Recently, words could be heard from the assembly booth, that could be interpreted as a threat to the security of the journalist "Danas"

In this connection, the question arises as to whether deputies can be punished for baseless charges. There is an act of false reporting in the Criminal Code.

It is clear that he those who intentionally file a groundless criminal complaint against a person may be prosecuted, but it is unclear whether "reporting" and under what conditions a public presentation of such a charge can be considered.

However, members of Parliament cannot be held accountable at all for criminal and other responsibility "for expressing an opinion in the exercise of their parliamentary function".

Therefore, a timely response by the public prosecutor's office remains the only effective measure for protecting the interests of the injured.