Higher Court in Belgrade orders detention of former Belgrade City Police Administration chief
The Higher Court panel imposed a thirty-day detention order on Veselin Milic, who is charged with several offences allegedly committed in his official capacity to cover up an aggravated attempted murder.
A panel of the Higher Court in Belgrade has ordered up to thirty days of pre-trial detention for Veselin Milic, the former head of the Belgrade City Police Administration, according to a statement by Belgrade’s Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office dated 24 May. The prosecutor’s office charges Veselin Milic with several criminal offences allegedly committed in his official capacity in order to cover up an aggravated attempted murder at the “27” restaurant on Senjak on 12 May.
Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the prosecutor’s statement said, detention was ordered on the grounds of reasonable suspicion that the accused, if at liberty, could influence witnesses and obstruct the gathering of evidence. The panel paid particular regard to the seriousness of the alleged offences and to the fact that the suspect had until recently held a senior position in the police.
Veselin Milic was questioned before a deputy public prosecutor at the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office before being remanded to the Belgrade District Prison. His defence counsel, whose name the prosecutor’s office did not publish, has announced an appeal against the detention order before the Belgrade Court of Appeal, within the three-day statutory deadline.
Alongside the former chief, the same panel also ordered detention for the other suspects in the case. Nine of the people arrested so far have been remanded in custody for up to thirty days, while one woman has been placed under house arrest. The total number of arrests, according to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, has risen to ten.
Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the thirty-day detention order can be extended by a court ruling for a further two months, at the prosecutor’s request, if the investigation is ongoing and there is a risk of obstruction. Once an indictment is filed, detention is decided by a non-trial panel.
The accused and their defence counsel will be able to turn to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Serbia only after they have exhausted the ordinary legal remedies, lawyer Goran Petronijevic said in a statement to the daily Politika. He recalls that, in similar proceedings involving Interior Ministry personnel, courts have often ordered detention because of the risk of influence over witnesses drawn from police ranks.
Activists at the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM) said the case raises questions of systemic oversight of the work of the Belgrade City Police Administration, while at the same time stressing that the presumption of innocence is binding until a final judgment is reached. YUCOM director Milan Antonijevic said in a statement that the prosecutor’s office should, as soon as the investigation allows, present the facts to the public to prevent speculation.
The prosecutor’s office has so far issued seventy orders for various expert examinations, but no official finding on any possible human remains in the Senjak case has been released. The next procedural step is the issuance of a decision to conduct the investigation, after which the prosecutor’s office will gather evidence with a view to a possible indictment. Under the Code, that process can last up to six months.
