Add StudioX as a preferred source on GoogleThe head of Serbia’s criminal police directorate has been arrested and charged with abuse of office, according to state media reports cited by DW News on Sunday. Marko Kricak, 42, is accused of suppressing and manipulating an investigation into a killing in Belgrade.
The case involves the May murder of a suspected criminal underworld figure in a Belgrade restaurant. The charge against Kricak relates to how that investigation was handled. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Arrest follows election defeat for Vucic’s camp
The arrest comes shortly after the opposition Student List defeated President Aleksandar Vucic’s right-wing populist camp in parliamentary elections on October 25. Kricak was seen as a supporter of Vucic.
Student groups had also accused him of “brutality” in the police response to peaceful anti-Vucic demonstrations. Removing Kricak and other Vucic loyalists from Serbia’s police and intelligence apparatus was among the demands of student leaders.
Belgrade’s chief prosecutor, Nenad Stefanovic, rejected any link between those demands and the arrest. He told journalists that the arrest had nothing to do with the outcome of the legislative elections.
Even so, DW reports that the arrest of a senior police officer regarded as close to the former leadership is being seen as an example of the strongholds of the Vucic system slowly eroding.
Career inside the Vucic system
According to DW, Kricak worked as a car salesman before being recruited into Serbia’s domestic intelligence agency, the BIA. He was described as a loyal supporter of Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
In July 2023, he was appointed commander of the Serbian police’s personal protection unit, known as the JZO. In that post, he is alleged to have personally led the abduction of a group of university students. He is also alleged to have assaulted a female student and threatened to rape her in the basement of a government building in Belgrade. These allegations are not part of the abuse-of-office charge reported on Sunday.
At the end of 2025, Kricak was appointed head of the Serbian Criminal Police, the post he held at the time of his arrest.
What to watch
The arrest is one of the first high-profile moves against a figure from Serbia’s security apparatus since the vote. The prosecutor’s public insistence that the case is unrelated to the election result is likely to remain a point of debate, given that Kricak’s removal was a student demand and the Vucic camp has just lost power in parliament.
Further details of the case against Kricak were not available in the reports.
Source: DW News
Articles from this desk are produced with AI assistance from verified, attributed sources and published under StudioX News editorial standards. To report an error: studioxnews.ca/complaints/
