Forbes: Prosecutors Should Question Vucic about Novi Sad Railway Station Canopy Collapse

Railway Station in Novi Sad, Nov.15 2024 (BETAPHOTO/Dragan Gojic)

Former Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic should be questioned as part of proceedings to establish responsibility for the deadly 2024 collapse of a concrete canopy at the Novi Sad railway station and possible corruption within the project to modernize the railroad to the Hungarian border, Forbes Serbia reported on Oct. 28.

Released documentation and the discoveries of media and the Inquiry Committee looking into who was responsible for the canopy collapse clearly indicate that he had knowledge about the project and that members of his staff had information about its execution, which may be sufficient grounds for prosecutors in the proceedings to summon him for an interview, Forbes Serbia's collocutors said. They also noted that Vucic should be questioned, especially in the case of the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, which is still in the investigation stage.

Vesna Rakic Vodinelic, a retired law professor and member of the Inquiry Committee, told Forbes Serbia that the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime should question Vucic because it is pursuing a case of possible corruption and abuses in carrying out the project of modernizing the railway to the Hungarian border. According to her, whether Vucic will be treated as a citizen or a suspect when he is interrogated is another matter.

She recalled that the conclusions adopted by the Inquiry Committee state that there is basis to suspect that Vucic headed an organized crime group whose actions resulted in the collapse of the canopy, which killed 16 people. The Inquiry Committee has called for expanding the investigation to include the then-president before. Rakic Vodinelic said communication within the railway reconstruction project ran through the president's office and that it was he who rushed the work.