Among the gathered supporters of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) who assembled on Wednesday evening in front of the Serbian Parliament, in the so-called “Ćaciland,” was Đorđe Prelić Prela, who was convicted of the murder of French fan Brice Taton in 2009 in Belgrade.
In recent months, Prelić has often been seen at Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) rallies and meetings, including at a rally in Sremska Mitrovica on February 15 of this year, according to the portal Nova.rs.
On Wednesday evening, Prelić was in the front rows of SNS supporters in Ćaciland.
Protests were held throughout Serbia on Wednesday evening due to the violence that occurred on Tuesday evening in front of the SNS offices in Vrbas, when SNS supporters attacked citizens with pyrotechnics. SNS supporters also attacked citizens with pyrotechnics in Novi Sad last night.
Political Reactions and Accusations
The appearance of Prelić in front of the Serbian Parliament prompted a response from the president of the Democratic Party, Srđan Milivojević. He sent a strong message to members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, accusing them of having “sided with the social dregs and mafia that have usurped the state and which will soon be ousted.”
“Don’t think you are hidden without insignia and with balaclavas. There is data on who was on duty yesterday, the day before yesterday, and all the days so far. No one will escape responsibility, and there are conscientious people among you who are reporting and will continue to report on what everyone is doing. No one will be hidden from responsibility. There will be no amnesty,” Milivojević said.
He accused the police of “receiving orders from Andrej Vučić and his closest associates, brutal murderers and convicts, like Prela,” and of “assisting mercenaries.”
Premature Release from Prison
Đorđe Prelić was convicted of a multi-year sentence for the murder of Frenchman Brice Taton in the center of Belgrade in 2009. He was arrested in 2013 near Barcelona on a Serbian warrant and was extradited to Serbia the following year.
In the initial first-instance verdict in 2011, while he was a fugitive, he was sentenced in absentia to 35 years in prison as the organizer of fan riots. However, the Court of Appeal reduced that sentence and definitively sentenced him to 15 years. The sentence was changed twice more—first to 12 years and then in 2018 to 10 years.
Đorđe Prelić was released in 2021, and his release was accompanied by a series of strange circumstances. Namely, on June 30, 2021, the Court of Appeal overturned a decision by the Higher Court in Belgrade from June 3, which had denied Prelić’s request for conditional release. The release followed after the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office abruptly decided on June 17 to suspend the criminal proceedings against him for violent behavior, for an event from 12 years prior.
Prelić is also publicly associated with organized crime and the Veljko Belivuk clan. In August 2022, at a match between Partizan and AEK, when a group of fans lined up the black-and-white players and demanded they take off their jerseys and then sing “The management out.” He led the “sermon” to the players from the fence of the south stand.
In 2023, Member of Parliament for the Party of Freedom and Justice, Marinika Tepić, announced that Prelić was calling for an SNS rally, which was held in May of that year, and asked whether he was the new “Belivuk” and if he was released from prison early to control the fan group “Principi.”
After the December elections held the same year and the riots that broke out in front of the Belgrade City Assembly, the president of the SSP, Dragan Đilas, said that the protest was peaceful until a group of hooligans led by Prelić appeared in front of the City Assembly. According to Đilas, Prelić had been celebrating the election victory with Aleksandar Šapić in Skadarlija a few evenings earlier.
Out of Prison Early, Then in Front of SNS Offices
Prelić is not the only criminal convicted of a serious crime who has been seen “defending” SNS offices.
On Tuesday evening in Novi Sad, Jovan Coja Kecman, the former leader of the FK Novi Sad fan group “Korida,” was filmed. Kecman was convicted of the attempted murder of former police officer Dalibor Bogdanović Boća, who is also in custody as a suspect in the murder of bodyguard Goran Kovačević Goranac.
Kecman was filmed in front of the SNS offices throwing a chair at the gathered citizens.
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Source: N1, Foto: N1 MUP