Serbia arrests police chief over abuse of office allegations

Belgrade’s chief prosecutor says arrest of Marko Kricak ‘has no link’ to elections that saw Aleksandar Vucic step down.

Marko Kricak is seen as a loyalist to defeated leader Aleksandar Vucic [File: Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs]

Serbian authorities have arrested the head of the country’s criminal police directorate on suspicion of abuse of office, while denying there are any links to elections held a week ago.

Marko Kricak, 42, was arrested on Sunday along with the police commander in charge of fighting organised crime, Bosko Sekulovic, Belgrade’s chief prosecutor said.

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Prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic said the two were suspected of abusing their offices and failing to uphold their duties, “thus causing prejudice and serious harm to the rights of Belgrade’s former police chief”, Veselin Milic.

The allegations surfaced in an investigation into the murder of a suspected criminal underworld figure in a Belgrade restaurant in May.

Milic, who was arrested days after the murder for failing to report the crime and helping the perpetrator, began legal action while in custody against Kricak and Sekulovic, accusing them of giving prosecutors incomplete and false evidence.

Kricak is seen as a loyalist to defeated President Aleksandar Vucic. The police chief was accused by student groups of “brutality” in the police response to demonstrations that helped bring down Vucic’s ruling right-wing party.

Last week they demanded his removal, along with that of several other police and intelligence chiefs, as part of sweeping reforms.

However, the prosecutor’s office did not provide any link between Kricak’s arrest and the students’ demands.

“This arrest has no link with … the result of the legislative elections,” Stefanovic told journalists.

The Student List, a student-backed movement, won a historic victory on October 25 in snap elections called by Vucic after nearly two years of protests, ending 14 years of rule by his Serbian Progressive Party.

Two years since the Novi Sad tragedy

The arrests come as Serbia marks two years since the Novi Sad railway station disaster.

On Sunday, thousands gathered in Novi Sad to mark the day that a concrete canopy collapsed at the city’s newly renovated railway station, killing 16 people.

The crowd observed 16 minutes of silence, one for each victim, as the students marched silently through the rain carrying wreaths.

“It’s hard to go back to the place where it all happened,” Dijana Hrka, whose 27-year-old son Stefan was killed, told the AFP news agency. “I believe justice will be served.”

In a statement, students said “tragedy” was not enough to describe what happened.

“Tragedy describes an accident,” they said. “But behind that word, one can cleverly conceal the word we are all looking for: responsibility.”

The collapse set off Serbia’s biggest protests since the fall of former President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned in January 2025, and Vucic stepped down as president in September to lead his party’s list, pardoning students and activists prosecuted over the protests.

贝尔格莱德首席检察官表示，逮捕马尔科·克里恰克与导致亚历山大·武契奇下台的选举“没有任何关联”。

马尔科·克里恰克被视为战败领导人亚历山大·武契奇的忠实拥护者。[文件：塞尔维亚内政部]

塞尔维亚当局以涉嫌滥用职权为由逮捕了该国刑事警察局局长，同时否认此事与一周前举行的选举有任何关联。

贝尔格莱德首席检察官表示，42岁的马尔科·克里恰克于周日被捕，同时被捕的还有负责打击有组织犯罪的警察指挥官博斯科·塞库洛维奇。

列表 1/3：塞尔维亚学生推翻武契奇政府

武契奇之后的塞尔维亚：谁将担任总理？何时组建政府？（共3个问题，此为第2个）

列表 3（共 3 项）：欧洲学生可以从塞尔维亚同龄人身上学到什么

检察官内纳德·斯特凡诺维奇表示，两人涉嫌滥用职权，未能履行职责，“从而对贝尔格莱德前警察局长韦塞林·米利奇的权利造成了偏见和严重损害”。

这些指控是在对五月份贝尔格莱德一家餐厅发生的疑似黑社会人物谋杀案的调查中浮出水面的。

米利奇在谋杀案发生几天后因未报告犯罪和帮助犯罪者而被捕，他在被拘留期间对克里恰克和塞库洛维奇提起诉讼，指控他们向检察官提供了不完整和虚假的证据。

克里恰克被视为败选总统亚历山大·武契奇的忠实拥护者。这位警察局长曾被学生团体指控在镇压示威活动中“手段残暴”，而这些示威活动最终导致了武契奇领导的右翼执政党的垮台。

上周，他们要求撤换他以及其他几位警察和情报部门负责人，作为全面改革的一部分。

然而，检察官办公室并未提供克里恰克被捕与学生诉求之间的任何联系。

“这次逮捕与……立法选举结果没有任何关系，”斯特凡诺维奇告诉记者。

由学生支持的学生运动“学生名单”在武契奇发起的提前选举中取得了历史性胜利。此次选举是在近两年的抗议活动之后举行的，结束了武契奇领导的塞尔维亚进步党长达14年的统治。

诺维萨德惨案发生两年了

此次逮捕行动正值塞尔维亚纪念诺维萨德火车站灾难两周年之际。

周日，数千人聚集在诺维萨德，纪念该市新翻修的火车站混凝土顶棚倒塌造成 16 人死亡的日子。

人群默哀 16 分钟，悼念每一位遇难者，学生们手捧花圈，在雨中静静地行进。

“很难回到事发地点，”迪亚娜·赫尔卡告诉法新社，她27岁的儿子斯特凡在事故中丧生。“我相信正义终将得到伸张。”

学生们在一份声明中表示，“悲剧”一词不足以形容所发生的事情。

“悲剧指的是意外事故，”他们说。“但在这个词背后，人们可以巧妙地隐藏我们都在寻找的那个词：责任。”

此次垮台引发了塞尔维亚自 2000 年前总统斯洛博丹·米洛舍维奇下台以来规模最大的抗议活动。总理米洛什·武切维奇于 2025 年 1 月辞职，武契奇于 9 月辞去总统职务，领导其所在政党的名单，并赦免了因抗议活动而受到起诉的学生和活动人士。