Big arrest: Five mayors "had fallen" due to corruption

Due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of abuse of official position, M.G. (71), president of Municipality Donji Lipovac, M.M. (38), president of Municipality Grabovnica, I.M. (41), president of Municipality Vlajkovci, M.R. (62), president of Municipality Batote and S.M. (55), president of Municipality Žiljci, were arrested.

D.E. (74) was arrested due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that he had committed the criminal offense of money laundering, and for abuse of office in assisting N.K. (56), the owner and authorized person of SZR "Knel" Blace and M.O. (36) from Blace.

A criminal complaint in the regular procedure will be filed against Z.R. (63), former assistant to the president of the municipality of Brus, factually responsible person and authorized person of PD "MHE Klipić" d.o.o. Razbojna due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that he committed criminal acts of influence peddling and abuse of official position, M.R. (38) owner and responsible person of PD "Gandi light" d.o.o., due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that he committed the criminal offense of abuse of official position in helping, V.E. (45) president Municipality Ravni, due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that he committed criminal acts of money laundering and abuse of official position, as well as against Dj.S. (75) president of Municipality Tršanovci, J.M. (55) president of Municipality Brdjani, N.V. (45) president of Municipality Dubci, S.V. (44) president of Municipality Razbojna, M.G. (40) president of Municipality Lepenac, D.M. (60) president of Municipality Brus, G.S. (57) president of Municiality Igroš, M.Č. (61) president of Municipality Graševci, L.R. (72) president of Municipality Botunja, due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of abuse of office.

It is suspected that Z.R., as an assistant to the president of the municipality of Brus, with the intention of obtaining an illegal property benefit for himself, used his official position and exceeded the limits of his official powers, enabled PD "MHE Klipić", contrary to the law and the decision of the municipality of Brus, to carry out works on the maintenance of public lighting in the territory of the municipality of Brus without competition. The suspect Z.R., on behalf of the municipality of Brus from "Gandilight", whose formal owner is his son M.R., as well as SZR "Knel" Blace, owned by N.K., procured false offers for the execution of works in order to use them as real ones, at the same time using his social and real influence he mediated with the presidents of the local communities of the municipality of Brus to sign decisions and contracts on the execution of works in front of the local communities with the allegedly most favorable bidder PD "Klipić", which were paid from the budget of the municipality of Brus in the amount of 486,740 dinars.

• Serbian police in action: New major arrest

Z.R., as the de facto responsible person in PD "MHE Klipić", disposed of funds from the account and, with the intention of obtaining illegal property benefits for himself and others, carried out an unjustified transfer of funds from the account of "MHE Klipić" to his private account, and in the period from 2019 to 2022 in favor of V.E. in the total amount of 587,200 dinars. It is suspected that he was helped by M.R., N.K. and M.O.

Fifteen presidents of local communities authenticated the false decision of the Council of Local Communities and signed contracts for the provision of services with "MHE Klipić", even though they knew that the bids had not been collected and that they did not determine that the offer of "MHE Klipić" was the most favorable, as well as that "MHE Klipić" and PD "Gandi light" are legal entities connected to Z.R.

Suspects D.E. and V.E., in the period from 2018 to 2021, unjustifiably transferred funds in the total amount of 3,486,000 dinars by PD "Gandi light", PR "Milena Milunović" and PD "MHE Klipić" to their private accounts with the knowledge that the assets originated from criminal activities, which they raised.

Suspect M.G,. M.M., I.M., M.R., S.M., N.K., D.E., and M.O. will, along with the criminal complaint, be submitted to the prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Kraljevo, Special Department for Suppression of Corruption.

Members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Criminal Police Directorate, and the Department for Combating Corruption will continue their work to combat corruption on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.