Driver jailed for ramming municipal officer in Leskovac

A man from Leskovac was arrested on suspicion of driving his car into a municipal police officer who had photographed his illegally parked vehicle. The case was over within days: he admitted the offence in a deal with the prosecutor and was handed a prison sentence.

Serbia’s Interior Ministry (MUP) announced on July 31 that officers in Leskovac had arrested M. J., 42, from that city. He is accused of attacking an official in the performance of duty. The Leskovac Police Department also confirmed the arrest.

According to the ministry’s statement, the incident happened the previous day, on July 30 at around 2.50 p.m. The municipal police officer found an illegally parked car and began photographing it. The driver first shouted at him, then got behind the wheel, drove towards him and struck him with the front side of the vehicle.

How the case unfolded

• July 30, around 2.50 p.m.: a municipal police officer in Leskovac photographs an illegally parked car
• the driver abuses him verbally, gets into the car and hits him with its front side
• July 31: the Interior Ministry announces the arrest and says the suspect was handed to the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Leskovac with a criminal complaint
• before the prosecutor, and with his defence lawyer present, the driver signs a plea agreement that the court accepts

What happened before the prosecutor?

The suspect appeared before the prosecutor together with his lawyer and signed an agreement admitting the offence, the daily Danas reports. The court accepted the deal and imposed a prison sentence.

The Interior Ministry statement says nothing about that part of the case. It ends with the handover to the prosecution, as does the Tanjug report. Neither the length of the sentence nor the date the court ruled has been made public.

A parking photo turned criminal case

The whole case started with a single photograph of a badly parked car. In the end the driver answered for attacking an official, not for the parking.

The charge police entered in the complaint, attack on an official in the performance of duty, means the municipal officer was on duty when he took the picture. Photographing illegally parked vehicles is part of his routine work on the street.

Neither the Interior Ministry nor the Leskovac police said whether the officer was injured or needed medical treatment. It is also unknown whether the car used in the attack was seized, or what condition the driver was in at the time. The parking violation that set the whole thing off has not been mentioned again.