"Pedophiles party with children, many are influential in Serbia": Juric has photos, gathers evidence
Everyone needs to get involved in the fight against pedophilia, violence, abuse
"I know of several very important and influential people in our country who are pedophiles. They often throw parties with children aged between 12 and 15, and that's a public secret. These people are putting brakes on many things, and so the amending of the Criminal Code was in a way delayed. We have photos of some of them, and with a lawyer, we are ready to go public, but we don't have enough material to charge them. We hope that we will have the support of the people who have helped us so far in obtaining sufficient material for criminal charges," Igor Juric has told the portal Moj Novi Sad in a wide-ranging interview.
There are many such people in our country, he added, and pedophilia is widespread here.
"I live for the day when we will officially present the evidence. It's enough to see how much money is spent in Serbia for viewing such (child abuse) content. Then you have to be aware that these people want to experience it physically as well," said Juric.
Everyone needs to get involved in the fight against pedophilia, violence, abuse, he says.
"Most people think that it's not their problem when they see violence on the street, when they know that a neighbor is beating his wife... They don't want to get involved, they don't want to spend time in courts... Here is an example of Backo Petrovo Selo, which has maybe a thousand inhabitants and where everyone knows everyone else. Suddenly, a married couple from Austria show up there, and children start going to their house. Sexual intercourse with children was taking place there, they even live-streamed it and charged for it. That went on for two years, everyone knew about it, no one cared, and the children were silent in excahnge for a little money and some gifts," Juric recalls.
Even parents often cover up these cases. They tell children to keep silent, that they will be stigmatized if they speak up, that they will never marry, that it is better for everyone to let everything pass, not create additional problems..., says Juric.
It is precisely the way people react to strange situations, to a problem or to any indication that something bad is happening that Serbia is still different from some countries with developed awareness.
"Of course, we have to raise people's awareness, instead of what happened in Bajmok when Tijana (Juric's late daughter) was abducted, for him (the kidnapper) to drive around the village all night and no one remembering his car. In developed countries, this is how it works and 90 percent of cases are solved by citizens' reaction. When you see something suspicious, you must not remain silent, perhaps your observation will be of key importance. Here's an example. A girl in Australia, not from this region, saw three children at a station and it looked suspicious to her that the oldest girl carried a huge backpack inappropriate for her age. She approached to help them, noticed that they spoke poor English, and in the meantime, the father appeared.
And then she "investigated" the whole case.
"From his story, she learned that they were from Novi Sad (in Serbia), that their mother had left them, that she was abusive towards the children, that they needed help. The story was dubious because one child reacted lovingly to the mention of the mother's name. The Australian girl wasn't too lazy to call the Novi Sad Police Department, who transferred her to another number because no one spoke English. The other number also didn't speak English. Then she googled us (Tijana Juric Foundation) and sent us an email. It turned out that the father had kidapped the children two years earlier, that they were victims of domestic violence, that he had taken them around Europe before finally reaching Australia. Now we are working to get them back to their mother. Imagine how many people here would react to such a situation, maybe one in a hundred.
Digital forensics
As coming up with proof is difficult in the digital world, a whole new team will be formed to keep track of pedophiles.
"We want to do digital forensics because everything used to be on a personal computer, while today that data is stored somewhere in the cloud, which is difficult to prove. I am gathering a team to deal with that and assist the police. When there's proof somebody is storing such content they can be prosecuted, even if it's proven that they were viewing sexual abuse of children over the dark web. Sometimes we get into pedophile sites, which is not at all easy. I think that as an organization, we can help the police through projects and other ways of financing," said Juric.
For now, Net Patrol is functioning.
"That means reporting and removing child sexual abuse content from the web. We work together with our police, Interpol and Europol and everyone can report such content to us. There are a lot of problems regarding this topic in Serbia and, unfortunately, in this line of work, if I can call it that, there can be no competition.
The foundation moves to Novi Sad
Igor Juric also said that the Tijana Juric Foundation is moving from Subotica to Novi Sad because of excellent cooperation it has with citizens.
(Telegraf.rs/Moj Novi Sad)