Obilicev Venac Garage Fire: Two Minors Detained
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said police identified and detained two minors suspected of setting fire to the protective netting on a Parking Servis garage on September 27.
Two days after the fire at a garage on Obilicev Venac, police have detained two minors suspected of setting fire to the protective netting on the building. Interior Minister in the caretaker government Ivica Dacic announced it on Tuesday evening, September 29.
The suspects were identified and detained by officers of the Criminal Police Directorate, Department for the Investigation of Explosions, Fires and Accidents. They are suspected of the criminal offense of causing general danger.
What does the statement say?
On the detentions themselves, Dacic said in the statement:
“Members of the Interior Ministry in Belgrade, the Criminal Police Directorate, Department for the Investigation of Explosions, Fires and Accidents, identified and detained two minors on grounds of suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of causing general danger.”
He then set out what they are accused of and how the procedure went:
“They are suspected of setting fire, on September 27 of this year at around 8:40 p.m. in Belgrade, on Obilicev Venac street, to the protective netting on the garage of JKP ‘Parking Servis’. On the order of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, Juvenile Department, the minors were questioned in the presence of a defense attorney, and the criminal complaint will be forwarded through regular channels to the competent prosecutor’s office.”
The statement does not give the ages of the suspects. As minors, they are not named, and the statement does not say whether any measure has been ordered against them.
What is known about the Sunday evening fire?
The fire broke out at the Parking Servis garage on Sunday, September 27. According to Dacic’s statement, that was around 8:40 p.m. In its first report on the fire, Novosti wrote that shortly before 9 p.m. flames engulfed a parked car and then spread across the protective curtain to the other floors, and that two vehicles of the Zvezdara Fire and Rescue Unit were sent to the scene.
The accounts differ here. The first reports describe a car as the point where the fire started, while the minister points to the burning of the protective netting. The statement does not explain how the two versions fit together.
The newsroom has already covered this event: police were looking for two young men seen on a surveillance camera recording, in which two people stand by the railing on the fourth level of the garage. The statement does not specify whether the detained minors are the two people from that footage.
What happens next?
The criminal complaint will be forwarded through regular channels to the competent prosecutor’s office, which decides how the proceedings continue. Until then the presumption of innocence applies: these are grounds for suspicion, not established guilt.
