The 85th Congress of the Serbian National Defense (SNO), the world’s oldest Serbian organization, was held in Chicago on Saturday. The eight-hour gathering was marked by clashes, heated arguments, and ultimately ended with the majority of members being denied the right to vote.
Before the Congress began, SNO members were met at the entrance by private security guards, who were soon joined by six police officers. As it turned out, their role was to prevent former SNO vice president Hadži-Miloš Marinković from attending the Congress, on the grounds that he had been expelled from the organization following an alleged physical altercation with another member, after which he spent more than two months in immigration detention.
Marinković did arrive with a group of supporters. Following a brief discussion with police, he remained outside, while his supporters were allowed to attend the assembly but were not permitted to vote because the membership list had reportedly been stolen.
After hours of heated debate, it was decided to apply an old rule under which the SNO leadership had last been elected decades ago. According to that rule, only members of the Central Board, Executive Board, Supervisory Board, and delegates from local chapters were entitled to vote, although the exact number of local delegates could not be determined.
In the end, only 14 people out of roughly 50 attendees were granted voting rights, sparking outrage among many of those present.
Serbian Times attempted to speak with outgoing SNO president Father Saša Petrović about the events and their consequences for the future of the organization, but despite repeated requests, he declined to comment. Instead, he threatened to sue Serbian Times over what he described as a “malicious article,” accusing the outlet of being “a state security media outlet.”
Those alleged “facts,” however, did not seem to concern Petrović over the past year while Serbian Times was publishing his interviews and articles and supporting his public criticism of the government of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. While there was criticism, there was cooperation. Now, only threats of lawsuits and avoidance of journalists’ questions remain.
While awaiting either his lawsuit or an interview, Serbian Times sought answers from a group of current members and former SNO officials who say they are “appalled by the actions and manipulation of former president Saša Petrović.”
“WE KEPT QUIET FOR A YEAR”
“We remained silent for almost a year about Petrović’s manipulation because of the priestly robe he wears and out of respect for the reputation of the Serbian National Defense. But enough is enough. Since last year, Archpriest Saša Petrović has been in conflict with almost all of the members who elected him president, including most members of his former Central Board. There have been numerous reasons for those conflicts and the growing distrust,” former SNO vice president Hadži-Miloš Marinković told Serbian Times, noting that he himself was expelled following a dispute with Petrović.
“Before being elected president in 2025, Petrović was in close contact with the people who elected him. Now he prevented those same people from voting simply because they no longer support him. A year ago, our shared goal was to modernize and rejuvenate the work of SNO in America, restore SNO chapters in the United States and Serbia, support Serbian students in their just struggle, advocate for the restoration of the monarchy, and help build a healthy political system in Serbia. Saša Petrović sabotaged that agreement and ultimately betrayed it.”
“HE COMPLETELY CHANGED AFTER RETURNING FROM SERBIA”
Igor Jaramaz of Belgrade, who was tasked by SNO leadership in America with re-establishing the organization’s operations in Serbia, continued the story.
“After our victory at the 2025 SNO Congress, we secured funding for Father Saša Petrović’s trip to Serbia, organized media appearances and a press conference. It created enormous publicity and SNO became visible again on the public stage after many years.”
However, according to Jaramaz, Petrović completely “changed his tune” after returning to the United States.
“We were told that he had been warned by the Serbian Patriarchate that he could lose his priestly position. According to people close to the Church, he then asked for forgiveness and signed a letter of repentance in which he allegedly renounced his previous positions and promised not to criticize the Patriarch or bishops considered close to Vučić’s government. Before that, he regularly criticized them on his own initiative. That suddenly stopped after he returned to America.”
Jaramaz also noted that Petrović failed to appear at a protest and memorial outside the Serbian Consulate in Chicago on November 1, 2025, marking the anniversary of the deaths of 16 people in the Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse, despite previously being announced as both a speaker and the priest who would conduct the memorial service.
MARINKOVIĆ’S ARREST
Several days earlier, in late October last year, then-SNO vice president Miloš Marinković was arrested.
“I was arrested based on a false report alleging a physical assault that never happened, following an argument inside SNO headquarters with an older member who had sent invitations to an SNO event featuring the image of a pig’s head wearing a traditional Serbian cap on the first day of the Dormition Fast,” Marinković said.
“A few days after being released by local police, ICE agents arrested me. This happened during immigration raids across Chicago, when many immigrants with legal status, including myself, were detained. I spent two months in immigration detention before the criminal complaint against me was dismissed in court as baseless. Video and audio recordings from the SNO office confirmed there had been no physical assault.”
He added that the most painful part came afterward.
“While I was in immigration detention, Saša Petrović did everything he could to prevent money from being raised to pay for my lawyer. He told people that ‘it was over for me,’ that I would certainly be deported, and that if I wasn’t deported it would prove I was working for the secret services. Thankfully, thanks to many sincere friends and good Serbian people from across America, everything ended well.”
Marinković said he had long been subjected to accusations that he was “a spy” sent to infiltrate SNO.
“If you’re young and better educated than some of them, you’re immediately labeled an agent. Saša Petrović now stands with those same people, despite being elected by the younger generation that he now slanders.”
DISPUTE OVER MEMBERSHIP
Atlanta SNO chapter founder and attorney Borko Komnenović argued that Petrović abused the organization’s rules to expel Marinković.
“Immediately after Marinković’s arrest, Saša Petrović convened a Central Board meeting where he tried to disqualify him by claiming he had never legally become an SNO member, even though he had joined while Professor Marić was still president, long before Petrović himself even became a member.”
Komnenović said Petrović misinterpreted a provision stating that SNO members must be “legal residents” of the United States by falsely claiming it applied only to green card holders or U.S. citizens.
“As a lawyer, I can confidently say that interpretation is false. It was a clear abuse of authority.”
He also alleged that Petrović later published the decision in the SNO newspaper Sloboda, falsely presenting it as having been approved by a vote that never actually took place.
ALLEGATIONS OF POLITICAL PRESSURE
Asked where relations between Petrović and his closest associates broke down, Marinković pointed to political disagreements.
“After returning from Serbia, Saša Petrović constantly sabotaged SNO activities and the establishment of SNO chapters in Serbia, claiming that the leadership supposedly lacked the authority to do so, even though he had agreed to those plans months earlier.”
He further alleged that Petrović, supported by one Central Board member, pressured SNO to publicly endorse a breakaway faction of the Serbian political party POKS operating under the name “Monarchists.”
“Many people warned him that this group was widely believed to be controlled opposition with close ties to Vučić. Nevertheless, Petrović insisted that SNO should form an election coalition with them.”
Marinković said he, First Vice President Ognjen Jovović, and longtime SNO board member Radislav Raković strongly opposed the proposal.
“Petrović alternated between threats, pressure, and promises. He even told Jovović and me that POKS would secure us positions in Serbia’s Office for the Diaspora. We rejected the offer.”
“HE DROVE OUT ONE OF SNO’S GREATEST BENEFACTORS”
Marinković also claimed that in January Petrović verbally drove Radislav “Rade” Raković, whom he described as one of Chicago’s greatest Serbian benefactors and “the man who had kept SNO alive in recent years,” out of the organization.
“Raković died four months later without ever returning to SNO, which had been his second home. That didn’t stop Saša Petrović from praising him publicly after his death, even though Raković remained in conflict with him until the very end.”
CONGRESS UNDER FIRE
Komnenović argued that Petrović completed what he called his “destructive mission” during this year’s Congress by using private security and police to prevent Marinković from entering while denying voting rights to the overwhelming majority of attendees.
“I repeatedly pointed out statutory violations and procedural irregularities during the Congress, but my efforts were personally obstructed by Petrović and several of his supporters.”
He noted that almost none of the members who had voted for Petrović the previous year supported him this time, while the electorate was reduced to just 14 people.
He also said that all members later labeled by Petrović as “coup plotters” had received identical messages seven days before the Congress reminding them to renew their membership dues and attend the event. Marinković reportedly received the same invitation.
“The question is why the majority of invited members were denied voting rights, while Marinković wasn’t even allowed into the building,” Komnenović said, adding that they possess extensive evidence supporting their claims and are prepared to present it publicly or in court if necessary.
CONCERNS OVER THE FUTURE OF SNO
Jaramaz also rejected Petrović’s recent claim in a Serbian media interview that Marinković had planned to transfer SNO funds to Serbia in order to establish a political party.
“I would certainly know if that had been true. Marinković never had, nor requested, access to any SNO bank account.”
He also expressed concern over previous proposals from several individuals now elected to SNO leadership, with Petrović’s support, to sell the organization’s Chicago headquarters—estimated to be worth more than $700,000—and move its headquarters to property owned by the Serbian Brotherhood organization.
“If that happens, the Serbian National Defense could suffer the same fate as the former Serbian House in Chicago, which was dismantled and ultimately destroyed.”
At the end of the interview, Marinković, Komnenović, and Jaramaz issued a joint message.
“We ask the Serbian people and all well-intentioned individuals to forgive us for believing in and supporting Saša Petrović. Unfortunately, it turned out that he is not the man he presents himself to be in public.”
Following the interview, Serbian Times concluded that the future of the Serbian National Defense remains uncertain after these events—a troubling development for an organization whose American branch was founded in 1914 by the great Serbian-American scientist and inventor Mihajlo Pupin.