Man, 70, arrested for bribing police clerk in Presevo
A 70-year-old from the Presevo area is suspected of tucking cash into the paperwork he handed over at a police counter, hoping to speed up a residence certificate.
A 70-year-old man has been arrested in Presevo on suspicion of bribing a police clerk. The Criminal Police Directorate and the Anti-Corruption Service detained M. C. (born 1956), from the Presevo area. He is suspected of placing money in with the documents he handed over at the administrative affairs counter of the Presevo police station. What he came for was a residence registration certificate.
Serbia’s Interior Ministry (MUP) announced the arrest on July 31. The case was run on the orders of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Nis, its Special Department for the Suppression of Corruption.
Why would cash end up at that counter?
The administrative counter at a Serbian police station issues certificates confirming registered residence and temporary residence. According to the ministry, the suspect wanted the clerk to move his file along faster and issue the certificate sooner. Not to do something forbidden, then, but to do the routine thing quickly.
A residence certificate is the sort of document people need for banks, courts, schools and consular paperwork. The ministry did not say how much money was involved, nor how it was placed, only that it came in with the file.
The charge
M. C. was handed over to a prosecutor at the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Nis, along with a criminal complaint. He is charged with giving a bribe.
The offence sits in Article 368 of Serbia’s Criminal Code. The basic form carries six months to five years in prison. The law also recognises a lesser form, where the bribe is meant to make an official perform an act they are obliged to perform anyway. Which form applies is a decision for the indictment, not for a police press release.
The same article carries a provision that rarely makes the news. A person who gives a bribe can be released from punishment if they report the offence before it is discovered. That window closes the moment the offence comes to light.
Why the file goes to Nis
Presevo lies in the Pcinja District, inside the territory of the Nis Appellate Court. That is why the case does not stay with the local basic prosecutor’s office but goes to the Special Department for the Suppression of Corruption in Nis.
Those departments have been working since March 1, 2018, when the Law on the Organisation and Jurisdiction of State Bodies in the Suppression of Organised Crime, Terrorism and Corruption took effect. Four were set up, one per appellate region:
- Belgrade, for the Belgrade Appellate Court region
- Novi Sad, for the Novi Sad Appellate Court region
- Nis, for the Nis Appellate Court region
- Kraljevo, for the Kragujevac Appellate Court region
Matching departments were created inside the courts, and dedicated anti-corruption units inside the police. One of those units made the arrest in Presevo.
The point of the system was to pull corruption cases out of the general docket and give them specialist handlers. Here is what that looks like in practice: a file worth one residence certificate lands with the same department that handles the largest corruption cases in southern Serbia.
M. C. is presumed innocent until a final court judgment.
