Serbia detains police chief amid post-election scrutiny

Serbian prosecutors detained two senior police officers on Sunday, a move that officials insist is unrelated to the legislative elections held a week prior. Marko Kricak, the 42-year-old head of the criminal police directorate, and Bosko Sekulovic, the commander in charge of organized crime units, were taken into custody in Belgrade.

Chief Prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic stated the pair is suspected of abusing their offices and failing to uphold their duties. He explained that their actions caused prejudice and serious harm to the rights of Veselin Milic, the former police chief of Belgrade. Stefanovic explicitly told journalists that the arrest has no link with the result of the legislative elections.

The case originated in an investigation into the May murder of a suspected criminal underworld figure at a restaurant in Belgrade. Milic was arrested days after that killing for failing to report the crime and allegedly assisting the perpetrator. While in custody, Milic initiated legal proceedings against Kricak and Sekulovic, claiming they provided prosecutors with incomplete and false evidence.

Kricak has long been viewed as a loyalist to Aleksandar Vucic, the president who lost his seat in the recent snap elections. Student groups previously accused the police chief of brutality during the demonstrations that contributed to the downfall of Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party. These groups had demanded Kricak’s removal alongside several other intelligence and police chiefs as part of a broader reform effort.

The arrests occur as Serbia marks two years since the Novi Sad railway station disaster. On Sunday, thousands of people gathered in Novi Sad to commemorate the collapse of a concrete canopy at the newly renovated station, an incident that killed 16 people. The crowd observed 16 minutes of silence, one for each victim, as students marched through the rain carrying wreaths.

Dijana Hrka, whose 27-year-old son Stefan died in the collapse, told the AFP news agency that it is difficult to return to the site of the accident. She expressed belief that justice will be served. A statement from the student movement argued that the word tragedy is insufficient to describe the event. They noted that tragedy describes an accident, but the word responsibility is what people are seeking.

The station collapse triggered the largest protests in Serbia since the fall of former President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. The unrest led to the resignation of Prime Minister Milos Vucevic in January 2025. Vucic stepped down as president in September to lead his party’s list in the recent elections, during which he also pardoned students and activists prosecuted over the protests. The Student List movement won a historic victory on October 25, ending 14 years of Serbian Progressive Party rule.