Belgrade Church Thief Caught, Safe Full of Cash Found
Police arrested a young man suspected of breaking into Serbian Orthodox churches in Belgrade for months, stealing money from donation boxes and under icons. A safe with cash was found in his home.
Officers from the Vracar police station, part of the Belgrade Police Directorate, have solved six aggravated thefts from properties belonging to the Serbian Orthodox Church. The case was handled together with the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, the Interior Ministry (MUP) said in a statement.
The arrested man is identified only as J.N., born in 2001 according to the ministry’s statement, though media reports describe him as 25 years old. He is suspected of breaking into church properties across Belgrade over an extended period.
According to MUP, he took money from donation boxes and from underneath icons. In one instance, the statement says, cash was taken from a safe inside the parish house of a Serbian Orthodox church.
What the search turned up
When police searched the apartment where the suspect was staying, they found a safe along with a substantial amount of cash. The statement does not specify the exact sum or the number of banknotes recovered.
J.N. has been ordered held for up to 48 hours. He will be brought before the competent prosecutor’s office along with a criminal complaint, and prosecutors will decide how the case proceeds from there, including whether to seek his pretrial detention.
Under the law, the suspect is presumed innocent until a final verdict, and guilt can only be established in court.
