The head of the Serbian police’s Criminal Police Directorate, Marko Kričak, was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of abuse of office in connection with a murder investigation. The student protest movement had accused him of brutality during the crackdown on demonstrations against the government of Aleksandar Vučić.
Arrest follows early elections
The arrest comes a week after early parliamentary elections won by the list backed by the student protest movement, against the camp of the nationalist former Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić, who had held power since 2012.
Serbian media attributed the rise of 42-year-old Marko Kričak through the police hierarchy to his loyalty to Aleksandar Vučić. The Student List called for his resignation on Thursday.
“This arrest has nothing to do with the result of the parliamentary elections,” Nenad Stefanović, head of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, told reporters.
Two senior officers detained
As part of the operation, police arrested Mr Kričak and Boško Sekulović, head of the Crime Suppression Service of the Criminal Police Directorate, the prosecutor announced.
The two senior police officers are suspected of abuse of office and breach of their professional duties, allegedly causing damage and a serious violation of the rights of the former Belgrade police chief, Veselin Milić.
The underlying investigation
According to the prosecutor’s office, the alleged offences were committed during an investigation the two officers carried out after the murder in May of a man described as a member of the local mafia, at a Belgrade restaurant.
Veselin Milić was arrested three days after the murder on suspicion of “failing to report a crime and its perpetrator, and harbouring an offender”.
After spending almost two months in custody, he filed a criminal complaint against Marko Kričak and Boško Sekulović. He accused them of submitting selective, incomplete and false evidence against him to the prosecutor’s office, according to the text of the complaint published in the Serbian press in July.
