Serbia rocked by high-level arrests over alleged criminal clan links
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said, speaking about the scandal triggered by a murder in the Belgrade restaurant “27” and the arrest of the head of the Belgrade police and his former advisor Veselin Milić, that the state will deal with “dirty police officers.”
The Belgrade Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office previously announced that on the territory of the municipality of Inđija, a barrel was excavated in which, it is believed, the remains of Aleksandar Nešović, who was killed on May 12 in the Belgrade restaurant “27,” could be found.
Following this, the head of the Belgrade police and 10 other people were arrested in a case that has recently reached a high political level, CE Report quotes HINA.
Vučić said in an interview for Radio Television of Serbia that there is a 99.9% probability that the body of the murdered Nešović was found in that barrel, but that DNA analysis is still pending.
The head of the Belgrade Police Department, Veselin Milić, a former advisor to Vučić on the fight against corruption and organized crime, was arrested on May 15. The court ordered 30 days of detention for him due to, as it was legally qualified at the time, several criminal offenses aimed at “covering up an attempted murder” and preventing the clarification of the circumstances of the disappearance of Aleksandar Nešović Baje on May 12, who is linked by the media to one of the Belgrade criminal clans.
“No one is above the law and stronger than the state,” Vučić said in the interview, stressing that he cannot confirm that Nešović was “murdered in the presence and with the complicity” of the head of the Belgrade police.
“We will deal with dirty police officers,” Vučić announced, claiming that “all actors have been arrested” in this case and that the investigation is being conducted “without cover-ups.”
He described the murder and the way the body was hidden as “terrifying,” saying that it was done by “monsters, not humans,” because the victim “was not an academic nor someone without a record, but the way he died is terrifying.”
“Our response to this will be the strongest possible, and we will show everyone the honest face of the police… We don’t want a tycoon police… that is 2–3 percent, and the whole city knows who the dirty police officers are. Our measures will be harsh,” Vučić emphasized.
Speaking earlier about the case, he said it is an “extremely difficult case” for the state and announced the introduction of laws and sanctions against police or military officials who protect criminals and tycoons.
The arrested head of the Belgrade police, Veselin Milić, served from 2013 to 2018, when he was appointed advisor to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić for the fight against corruption and organized crime, and at that time he was also an assistant director of police.
At the end of 2020, by decision of then Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin, he was again appointed head of the Belgrade police. After the scandal was uncovered, he was urgently dismissed on May 15. In addition to Milić, 10 other people were arrested in the investigation, including four police officers.
Photo Wikipedia
