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Accident in the Soko mine: The higher prosecutor’s office requests to hear the mining inspector

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office from Niš gave practical instructions to the Basic Prosecutor’s Office from Aleksinac on how to continue dealing with the mining accident in the Serbian state coal mine Soko, among other things, who to investigate – first of all, the mining inspector who found numerous irregularities, N1 learns.

Responding to the objection of the families of the deceased, the Higher Prosecutor’s Office issued an instruction to the Aleksinic colleagues that they must initiate proceedings and listen to the mining inspector who established that Soko, at the time of the methane outbreak, had been working for 14 months without adequate permits from the Ministry, which is why, among other things, the then Mining Minister Zorana Mihajlović filed criminal charges, which were rejected by the Aleksinac Basic Prosecutor’s Office.

In addition, the lawyer of the families of the victims, Bratislav Stojanović, says that the findings show that the mining is carried out with an outdated ventilation system, although the authorities, after the accident, claimed that Soko meets the most modern standards.

In order to “help” the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Aleksinac to have a true picture and encourage them to identify the culprits for the omissions, the lawyer of the families of the injured miners will submit to the Republic Assembly on Wednesday a request for the establishment of a survey committee that will deal with the situation in domestic mines.

This, Stojanović believes, would also force the state to increase the safety of miners and eventually introduce the so-called Czech method of ventilating underground exploitations, thanks to which miners fare better during methane outbreaks and similar dangerous situations.

© 2020 Law office Stojanović