Serbian authorities arrested criminal police directorate chief Marko Kricak and organised-crime police commander Bosko Sekulovic on November 1 on suspicion of abusing their positions, Al Jazeera English reported, citing Belgrade’s chief prosecutor.
Prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic said the two officials were suspected of failing to carry out their duties and harming the rights of former Belgrade police chief Veselin Milic. The allegations emerged during an investigation into the killing of a suspected underworld figure at a Belgrade restaurant in May.
Milic was arrested days after the killing on allegations that he failed to report the crime and helped the perpetrator. While in custody, he initiated legal action accusing Kricak and Sekulovic of providing prosecutors with false and incomplete evidence.
The arrests followed an October 25 snap parliamentary election won by the student-backed Student List, ending 14 years of rule by Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party. Al Jazeera described Kricak as a Vucic loyalist. Student groups had accused him of brutality during the policing of protests and demanded his removal the previous week.
Stefanovic denied any connection between the arrests and the election result. His office also provided no link between Kricak’s detention and the students’ demands.
The arrests coincided with commemorations of the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse, which killed 16 people two years earlier and triggered mass protests. Thousands gathered in the city on November 1, observing 16 minutes of silence as students carried wreaths through the rain.