NEW CRIMINAL COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST MILITARY SECURITY AGENCY CHIEF: Suspected document forgery and concealment of evidence related to the arrest of General Momčilo Perišić!

Vladan Vlajković has filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime against Military Security Agency (VBA) Director Đuro Jovanić, Major General and Head of the Military Police Directorate Milan Lazić, Acting Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Nebojša V. Nikolić, as well as unidentified individuals.

The criminal complaint was filed over suspicions of falsifying official documents, obstructing and interfering with the presentation of evidence, and abuse of official authority. It concerns documentation and evidence from the case involving Momčilo Perišić, former Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, who was arrested in March 2002 at the Šarić Motel in Belgrade.

At the center of the complaint are the original forensic and technical documentation (KTD), 16 photographs, negatives, and a video recording of the arrest and search at the Šarić Motel on March 14, 2002. The complainant claims there is a serious discrepancy between official records identifying the recipient of this documentation and subsequent responses from state institutions stating that they do not possess certain materials.

According to the allegations in the complaint, the Military Police Directorate informed the Higher Court in Belgrade on August 16, 2019, that it had handed over the entire documentation, including photographs and a VHS recording of the arrest and search, to the then Military Security Service, whose legal successor is the Military Security Agency.

As a result, on September 20, 2019, the Higher Court in Belgrade sent an official request to the VBA, asking it to establish the whereabouts of the recording of the arrest and search and submit it to the court or explain why this was not possible.

However, in a response dated October 9, 2019, classified as strictly confidential, VBA Director Đuro Jovanić informed the court that the Agency had conducted the necessary checks and did not possess the requested video recording.

This discrepancy between the responses from the Military Police Directorate and the VBA is one of the key reasons behind the criminal complaint. It argues that an investigation is necessary to establish what happened to the documentation after it was handed over to the Military Security Service, who had access to the archives, whether the original materials were subsequently removed, altered or destroyed, and who may be responsible.