Opposition: Serbian Government Permeated by Crime

Veselin Milic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Ever since Belgrade Police Chief Veselin Milic was arrested on May 16 for his involvement in a gang member’s murder, opposition parties have been clamoring that the scandal is the worst in the history of Serbia’s police force and proves the highest government echelons are “interwoven” with criminal elements.

Aleksandar Radovanovic, the general secretary of the Movement of Free Citizens, said on May 20 that Serbia is a country where crime has become an integral part of the government structure and stressed that snap parliamentary elections are “urgently” needed.

“When top police officials share tables with gangs, when murders in downtown Belgrade are investigated only after public and social media pressure, then we are no longer talking about isolated incidents but a country where crime has become part of the government structure,” Radovanovic told Blic TV.

According to him, a top police official being tied to two gangs and organizing meetings between them is an event that supersedes any and all daily news because it demonstrates just how deeply interwoven crime and the establishment are.

Radovanovic recalled Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s claim that “half the drug dealers in the country” are guarded by off-duty police officers – a statement, Radovanovic said, whereby the regime itself confirmed the serious connection between state security structures and organized crime.

“Today, Serbia’s citizens don’t know whether the person wearing a police badge is someone who will protect them or who works for criminals,” Radovanovic concluded.