The head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Serbian police, Marko Krčak, was arrested today on suspicion of abuse of power in a murder investigation. He had been accused by the student movement of brutality in suppressing protests against the government of Aleksandar Vucic.
His arrest comes a week after voting in early parliamentary elections, which were won by a list backed by the student movement, which opposed the camp of former Serbian nationalist president Aleksandar Vucic, who had remained in power since 2012.
The rise of Marko Krčak, 42, in the Serbian police hierarchy was attributed by the Serbian media 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,” Belgrade Chief Prosecutor Nedad Stefanovic told reporters.
As part of the operation, the police arrested Mr. Krčak, as well as the director of the Crime Suppression Service of the Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Serbian Police, Boško Šekulović, the prosecutor announced.
The two senior police officers are suspected of abuse of power and violation of their professional duties, thus causing serious damage and violation of the rights of the former police chief of Belgrade, Veselin Milič.
According to the prosecutor's office, the crimes were committed in the context of an investigation conducted by two police officers following the May murder of a man who posed as a member of the local mafia in a restaurant in Belgrade. Veselin Milič was arrested three days after the murder on the suspicion of “failing to report a crime and its author and harboring a criminal”. After spending almost two months in custody, he filed a lawsuit against Marko Krčak and Boško Šekulović, accusing them of giving the prosecutor's office selective, incomplete and false evidence against him, according to the text of the lawsuit published in the Serbian press in July. taken from https://www.protothema.gr/
