🇷🇸 Top Serbian police chief and Vučić loyalist arrested, a week after the Student List's election win

🇷🇸 Top Serbian police chief and Vučić loyalist arrested, a week after the Student List's election win

Marko Kričak, head of Serbia's Criminal Police Directorate, was arrested in Belgrade this morning together with Boško Sekulović, head of the Service for Suppression of Crime.

The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade ordered the arrests over their alleged unlawful conduct in the "Senjak" murder case, including the beating of suspects during police interrogations. The case was opened after lawyers for former Belgrade police chief Veselin Milić accused the two of trying to pin a restaurant murder on him.

Kričak built his career under Aleksandar Vučić, rising from the BIA intelligence agency to head the unit protecting officials, and then the criminal police. Vučić repeatedly praised him in public as a fighter "without fear or blemish."

Formally, the new government had nothing to do with this. The Student List won the October 25 election, but a new government hasn't even been formed yet, and it's still unclear who will lead it. The movement ran without a clear leader or a prime ministerial candidate. The arrests were ordered by prosecutors acting on a criminal complaint.

But the timing says a lot. For years, people close to Vučić were considered untouchable, and complaints against them could sit in a drawer forever. One week after Vučić conceded defeat, his favourite police chief is in handcuffs. Two days ago, the central bank shut down Alta banka, owned by a businessman seen as close to Vučić's party. It was also one of the few Serbian banks that served Russians when many others turned them away, and thousands of Russians living in Serbia now have their money frozen.

🔴 @DDGeopolitics