From the investigation into the death of Dalibor Dragijević, through the disbanding of the Task Force in the “Canopy” case, to the police refusal to act on the prosecutor’s order in the “General Staff” case, a series of incidents points to serious problems in cooperation between the police and the prosecution. The establishment of a special prosecutorial police force, advocated by the Student List, could change the balance of power and reduce the scope for obstructing investigations.
Although the public prosecutor is still formally in charge of the pre-investigation proceedings, numerous cases in the recent period have demonstrated that this cooperation often does not run smoothly and that the obstacle is frequently in the hands of officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This particularly applies to cases that were inconvenient for the outgoing government, in which people close to the Serbian Progressive Party regime appear as suspects or defendants, or in which uncovering the circumstances would be detrimental to the SNS.
This could be brought to an end if the Student List succeeds in its intention to establish what is known as a prosecutorial police force. Nemanja Đurić, a candidate on the winning Student List and president of the Judicial Power Trade Union, previously explained to the Nova.rs portal that this would be a special police service directly subordinate to the public prosecutor’s office, rather than the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
There have been numerous cases, particularly over the past two years, in which the police have failed to cooperate with the prosecution. In some instances, there is even official confirmation of this information, with the prosecution clearly and unequivocally telling us that the police are not providing the required information. In some cases, formal requests for action have even been sent, but without any concrete results.
The killing of Dalibor Dragijević
One of the best-known cases is the killing of Dalibor Dragijević at the Bor Police Station. As a reminder, Dragijević was the biological brother of Dejan Dragijević, who, together with Srđan Janković, is now charged with the murder of two-year-old Danka Ilić in Banjsko Polje near Bor in 2023.
Dalibor Dragijević was arrested by the police while the search for Danka Ilić was already well underway. For days, there were no concrete developments in the investigation, despite the fact that the police already had Dragijević and Janković behind bars. The problem was substantiating the theory that the girl had been murdered, since there was no unequivocal evidence to support it. For this reason, according to the police announcement at the time, officers suspected that Dalibor had helped his brother Dejan dispose of the girl’s body. Their father, Rade, was also arrested for the same reason, but was subsequently cleared of wrongdoing.
Dalibor Dragijević was not so fortunate, as he did not live to see the following morning at the police station. The Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a brief statement saying that he had fallen ill and died despite the efforts of doctors. Any doubts about what had happened to Dragijević were dispelled when Radar published the autopsy report, which clearly concluded that Dragijević had been brutally beaten and had died as a result of the injuries sustained. The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Niš initiated pre-investigation proceedings due to concerns about bias, but so far nothing concrete has been done in the case because the police are delaying the submission of the necessary information to the prosecution.
Task Force – the “Canopy” case
The relationship between the police and the prosecution was perhaps most clearly demonstrated in one of the most important cases currently before the prosecution and the courts: the “Canopy” case.
As part of the investigation conducted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime into financial flows related to the implementation of the project “Modernization and Reconstruction of the Hungarian-Serbian Railway Connection on the Territory of the Republic of Serbia, on the Novi Sad–Subotica–Kelebija (State Border) Section,” a Task Force was established. It consisted of several officers from various police departments, four public prosecutors, three financial forensic experts and two prosecutorial associates. Less than two months later, the group was disbanded.
The official explanation provided by the Police Directorate to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime (JTOK) and the public was that the Task Force had been disbanded due to the ongoing restructuring of job positions within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, the fact that the Task Force was never re-established afterward shows that this explanation does not correspond to the truth.
The “General Staff” case
One of the cases in which it became clear that the police would not act on the prosecution’s orders was the “General Staff” case. It should not be forgotten that, even before the eventual arrest of the director of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Goran Vasić, JTOK prosecutor Mladen Nenadić had issued an order for his arrest, as well as for the arrest of several other individuals. However, officers from the Service for Combating Organized Crime (SBPOK) initially refused to carry out that order.
Following the refusal to comply with the prosecution’s order, according to unofficial and unconfirmed information obtained by Nova.rs, a meeting took place between Mladen Nenadić and certain senior police officials. Only afterward was Vasić taken into custody.
Harassment of an FDU student in front of the Faculty of Law
The Ministry of Internal Affairs, specifically its Internal Control Sector, slowed down the investigation into the harassment of a student from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU), who was pulled by the hair by police officers during an intervention in front of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade in July 2025.
This is evident from the response to questions our editorial team sent to the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade in September last year, asking about the progress of the case.
The student was held and dragged by the hair by a female police officer, who was soon identified by social media users as Tanja Drobnjak, deputy to the then commander of the Unit for the Protection of Certain Persons and Facilities, Marko Kričak. However, by all indications, she will not be held accountable in the way the public expects.
As we previously reported, all the efforts of prosecutor Smiljka Stojanović from the First Basic Prosecutor’s Office, who managed to complete the investigation against her and file an indictment proposal with the First Basic Court despite all the obstructions and pressure, ultimately proved futile.
Instead of receiving a summons to a hearing and trial, prosecutor Stojanović received a mandatory instruction from her immediate superior to close the Drobnjak case through the principle of opportunity, that is, to discontinue the proceedings against her in exchange for a payment of a certain amount of money to charity.
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Source: Nova.rs Foto: ATA IMAGES
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