Arrests continue throughout Serbia; Famous businessman "had fallen"

Companies whose owner is businessman V.V. are also being searched, Blic writes that it is "the biggest Vojvodina tycoon" Vladimir Vrbaško.

As part of this action, the arrest of a large number of people is underway, due to suspicion of various abuses, RTS learns.

Let us remind you that from early Wednesday morning until Thursday morning, in just 24 hours on the territory of Serbia, in several separate, coordinated actions in the fight against corruption, a total of 24 people were arrested for various criminal acts.

• This is the list of those arrested from the Ministry of Labour
• No one is protected; New details of the arrest of Grčić, Papić, and Marinković
• Inspectors who issued a work permit to the nursing home in Barajevo where 13 people died have been arrested
• 15 Louis Vuitton bags were found with Papić; The arrested businessman enjoyed luxury with his wife
• This is a list of all those arrested in the operation of combating corruption
• Chief Public Prosecutor Stefanović: 15 people arrested; Just the beginning of a major anti-corruption campaign
• The mayor of Obrenovac, Milorad Grčić, arrested

Members of the Criminal Police Directorate first arrested 15 people on Wednesday, including Milorad Grčić (55), the president of the municipality of Obrenovac and the former acting CEO of the national power company "Elektroprivreda Srbije", as well as the businessmen Aleksandar Papić and Toni Apostolović, due to the suspicion that, by arranging public procurements in EPS, they were placing millions of dollars for themselves.

Among those arrested are the director of the Football Club "Borac" from Lazarevac, Dejan Bulatović, who was "handcuffed" along with his wife, Kristina Bulatović.

Apart from them, the former president of that football club, Ivan Marinković and his wife Katarina, were arrested.

Milan Blagojević, director of the company "IntellSec", was also arrested in a major operation in the fight against corruption.

On Thursday, early in the morning, just 24 hours after the previous arrest, inspectors from the Criminal Police Directorate raided several offices in the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Veteran Affairs and arrested the head of one sector and three inspectors.

Social welfare inspectors of the Department of Inspection of the Ministry of Labour, N.S. (56), M.G. (43), M.T. (67) were arrested on suspicion of having committed a criminal offense - abuse of official position.

The head of the Department for Inspection Supervision in this Ministry, who is suspected of having committed a criminal offense - unconscionable work in the service, was also handcuffed.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that they, as suspected, by committing these criminal acts enabled the work of the "Ivanović" Barajevo Home for Adults and Seniors without having the necessary conditions stipulated by the Law on Social Protection and the Rulebook on Licensing of Social Protection Organizations, as well as the consent of the competent ministry for fire protection planning.

On the order of the Special Department for Suppression of Corruption, D.N., M.N., D.L. and V.L. were brought to the High Public Prosecutor's Office in Niš on suspicion of having committed a criminal offense - money laundering, while the suspect D.H. is additionally charged with the criminal offense of breach of trust when performing economic activities, it was confirmed for Blic.

Let's recall that the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, announced a fierce fight against corruption and then pointed out that it will encompass almost all spheres of society and that no one will be spared.

"The people will see something that they didn't see in 2012 and 2013, and you will see that there will be no areas that are exempted from that struggle. It will be a fierce struggle, and whoever is affected by that struggle, the competent authorities will do their work according to law and justice. But it will be a fierce, strong struggle. No one, even at the local level, will be able to avoid it because they think that the action is being conducted from Belgrade. It will be a highly decentralized action," said Vučić at the time.