Who Is Bojana Savović?

Bojana Savović (born in Zemun, 1978) is a Serbian lawyer and deputy public prosecutor at the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. She has worked in the prosecution service since 2001, and she has devoted most of her career to corruption-related offenses such as abuse of office, money laundering, embezzlement and tax evasion.

She became widely known in February 2023. After six people suspected of abuses at Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) were arrested, she was taken off a case she had led for more than a year. The episode prompted a strong reaction from legal experts, professional associations and citizens.

Since then, Bojana Savović has often been in the public spotlight. She speaks about the independence of the prosecution service, a number of disciplinary complaints have been filed against her, and she has received several public awards. Critics and supporters assess her public activity differently. This article sets out only facts confirmed by multiple sources.

Early Life and Childhood

Bojana Savović was born in 1978 in Zemun, Belgrade. Her exact date of birth is not publicly known. According to statements she gave to the daily newspaper Danas, she grew up in an extended family where education and discipline carried great weight.

Her mother was a Serbian language teacher, and both of her aunts worked in education. She says her grandparents, and later her parents, lived and worked in Zemun. The street where she was born, and where she still lives, has remained her permanent home.

She has described her primary school years as a time of strict rules and respect for authority. Skipping school, she said, was never an option. She describes herself as a restless child, full of energy and rebelliousness.

Education

She completed primary school in Zemun and then attended the Tenth Belgrade Gymnasium “Mihajlo Pupin”. According to the recollections of her homeroom teacher, who spoke publicly, she was already an active and persistent advocate for justice in secondary school.

After secondary school she enrolled at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, graduating in 2001. Of that period she said that the 1990s were hard for everyone, but that the difficult times motivated her even more to be a good student, finish her degree on time and with a good average.

During her studies she was a member of a debating club. She chose the criminal law track and was especially interested in criminalistics, criminology and forensic medicine. Besides Serbian, she speaks English, Russian and Italian.

Beginning of Her Career

In the same year she graduated, 2001, she began working as a trainee at the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. According to data published by Danas, she also worked at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the Ministry of Labor. From 2006 she served as secretary of the District Prosecutor’s Office.

In late 2009 she was appointed deputy public prosecutor at the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. There she gained experience in criminal cases and in direct dealings with the police and the courts.

From 2014 she worked at the Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, where she handled corruption cases: abuse of office, money laundering, embezzlement and tax evasion. This laid the foundation for her later specialization.

Work on Combating Corruption

Savović has attended around thirty professional courses and seminars, most of them on the fight against corruption. She has been a lecturer at numerous trainings in Serbia and abroad. She is also the author of a number of professional papers and articles on combating corruption and improving the work of the prosecution service.

At the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade she worked in the Special Department for Combating Corruption. At the time she was regarded in public as one of the more skilled and better-trained prosecutors in this field. It is noted that, together with her colleague Jasmina Paunović, she took part in training on combating corruption and money laundering that was also attended by representatives of American agencies.

In one conversation for a podcast of the Center for Judicial Research (CEPRIS), she discussed criminal investigations led by prosecutors and the need for deputy public prosecutors to specialize. She argued that higher prosecutor’s offices should specialize in public procurement and money flows, and basic offices in domestic violence and tax evasion. She also named the independence of deputy prosecutors from their superiors as an important issue.

The EPS Case and Her Reassignment from the Anti-Corruption Department

In February 2023, the police and the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office arrested six people suspected of damaging Elektroprivreda Srbije by about 7.5 million dollars during works at the Kostolac B thermal power plant. Bojana Savović was the prosecutor who had led the investigation for more than a year and who issued the orders to detain the suspects.

Immediately after the operation she was taken off the case and transferred from the anti-corruption department to the General Crime Department. The same happened to her colleague Jasmina Paunović, who had worked on the part of the case concerning money laundering.

In its first statement, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office said that Savović had been moved through the regular annual reassignment and at her own previously expressed wish. Savović firmly denied this and stated that she had not requested a transfer or delayed the case. The prosecutor’s office later stated that it had not told the organization Transparency Serbia that she had asked for a transfer. The Association of Prosecutors of Serbia and the Judges’ Association of Serbia demanded an urgent response from the competent bodies.

In an interview with KRIK, Savović said her case could be read as a message that any case can be taken away at any moment. She also said that deputy public prosecutors’ independence had narrowed since Nenad Stefanović took over the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office. She and Paunović, she said, were the sixth and seventh prosecutors moved out of that department since Stefanović took over as head of the office. The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office disputed her claims and said the move was a routine assignment of work.

Because of this case, rallies of support were held in Belgrade and other cities, and support also came from law faculty professors, lawyers and legal associations.

Disciplinary Complaints and Pressure

Since 2023, a number of complaints have been filed against Bojana Savović with disciplinary bodies. The daily Danas reports that over two years there were more than seventeen, most often filed by Nenad Stefanović, the chief public prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. Savović herself says that in the previous twenty years of work she had not had a single complaint.

In February 2024, Stefanović filed eleven complaints, among other things over her participation in events held by the ProGlas initiative ahead of the elections held on 17 December 2023. The statement said this violated the law on the public prosecution service, which prohibits political activity. Savović rejected those claims. She said she had never publicly supported any electoral list or told citizens whom to vote for, and that no political option was the subject of her appearances.

A separate complaint concerned a verbal clash with the first deputy chief public prosecutor, Miodrag Marković, which took place on 13 December 2023 in an office at the Palace of Justice. Marković filed the complaint in January 2024, and Stefanović also signed it. The Disciplinary Commission of the High Prosecutorial Council discussed the case on 29 September 2025, and Savović had requested a public hearing. The sources we found do not state a final decision.

Savović has filed complaints of her own as well. She reported the then first deputy chief prosecutor, Brankica Marić, to the Ethics Board of the State Prosecutorial Council, and she also filed a complaint against Stefanović. She says the disciplinary prosecutor’s decision on one of them was never delivered to her.

In June 2024 she was transferred to the Juvenile Department, saying at the time that she had received no explanation. In June 2025, Vreme reported that a state flag had been removed from the front of her office after her interview with that weekly.

Public Engagement and Colleagues’ Support

Savović has spoken publicly on several occasions about the state of the judiciary. She took part in events held by the ProGlas initiative, appeared in the media, and is a member of the non-governmental organization CEPRIS. Her views have been received as a significant contribution to the debate on prosecutorial independence. Her critics, including part of the legal associations and pro-government media, argue that a prosecutor must refrain from public political activity.

In April 2026 there were also more recent public reactions, when associations called on the competent bodies to establish the circumstances surrounding a published audio recording from an event at the Faculty of Law. The outcome of that procedure has not been established in the sources.

Savović has repeatedly been the target of tabloid articles. A court upheld her claim for damage to honor and reputation over one text about the event in Požega. Mladen Savatović, a journalist at N1, and other colleagues often followed her appearances.

In March 2023, a member of parliament and lawyer, Svetozar Vujačić, according to her, told her “you will fare badly” after an event at the Faculty of Law. Vujačić stated that he had addressed the prosecutor, but after the event ended and without a microphone. Savović informed the commissioner for the independence of prosecutors.

On 24 February 2026 she filed a criminal complaint against an unknown person after threats arrived through official mail at the Palace of Justice. She said then that she felt her safety was at risk. The threat was condemned by the Independent Journalists’ Association and other organizations.

Private Life

Savović is married and the mother of two daughters. In a conversation with Danas she said she met her husband after finishing university. One daughter finished the Zemun Gymnasium, as did her father and aunt, and the other attends it. She lives in Zemun, on the street where she was born.

She rarely speaks about her private life. On several occasions she has said that, because of pressure and threats, she fears for the safety of her family. Details of her private life are not publicly known and are not published here.

Interesting Facts

• The street in Zemun where she was born is still her home address today.
• She was a member of a debating club while studying at the Faculty of Law.
• She speaks English, Russian and Italian.
• By her own account, she received her first disciplinary complaint after twenty years of work.
• Her fight for the independence of the prosecution service has been publicly supported by colleagues, among them Milena Božović and Jasmina Paunović.
• Her legal representative is the lawyer Zdenko Tomanović.

Awards and Recognition

The weekly NIN gave her the “Person of the Year” recognition, as both journalists and CEPRIS report. Savović said on that occasion that she was grateful but also uncomfortable, because it says more about the state of society than about any heroism of hers.

In 2023, the organization CRTA presented the “Brave Voice” award to a group of citizens and public servants, among them prosecutors Bojana Savović and Jasmina Paunović and prosecutor Predrag Milovanović. Savović is also a recipient of the “Winning Freedom” award, given to women for their contribution to promoting human rights, the rule of law and democracy.

Legacy and Influence

Bojana Savović’s case has become one of the best-known examples in the debate about the independence of the prosecution service in Serbia. Her public statements encouraged other prosecutors and judges to speak out, and protests and petitions were organized in her support. Katarina Golubović of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights assessed that Savović has become a symbol of the protection of the profession and of freedom of expression.

Her opponents stress that a public prosecutor must act in accordance with the law on the public prosecution service and the code of ethics, which, in their view, includes refraining from political topics. The question of how much a prosecutor may say about the state of the judiciary remains open and is a subject of professional debate.

Whatever the differing assessments, Bojana Savović remains one of the most recognizable public prosecutors in Serbia, and her case is often cited in discussions of the judiciary, corruption and the protection of deputy public prosecutors.