Dusan Bajatovic Indicted Over Crash Near Novi Sad
The Srbijagas director is charged with a serious road safety offense, while his lawyer says no crime has been established. The next hearing is November 5.
Srbijagas director Dusan Bajatovic has been indicted for a serious offense against public traffic safety over a crash in January 2022 in a village near Novi Sad, the portal IZLAZ.com reported on October 21. The indictment was filed by the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad, and the case is being heard by the Basic Court in Novi Sad. Bajatovic is sixth on the electoral list “Ivica Dacic - Stability Factor.”
One woman was seriously injured in the crash. Prosecutors say Bajatovic was behind the wheel. His lawyer, Ljubomir Apro, replies that no criminal offense has been established.
What do we know about the case?
The investigation began back in 2022. The indictment was confirmed on December 18, 2025, and the presiding judge is Dusan Dakic. The next hearing is scheduled for November 5 at the Basic Court in Novi Sad.
By its own account, IZLAZ.com had a hard time getting even that much. The court repeatedly rejected the portal’s freedom of information requests about the case and for a copy of the confirmed indictment. All it provided was the confirmation date and the judge’s name, along with a reply that the on-site investigation record was drawn up by police in Beocin. The indictment itself came from the prosecutor’s office.
What does the indictment say?
The crash happened in the evening in early January 2022, in a small village near Novi Sad. Media reports say Bajatovic was returning from a slava, a traditional family feast. The vehicle veered off the road to the right and hit a parked car, which was thrown several meters and struck another parked vehicle.
According to the indictment, Bajatovic is accused of causing the crash by driving at an unsafe speed and violating the article of the Road Traffic Safety Law that covers driving under the influence of alcohol or psychoactive substances. An indictment does not mean any of this has been established, and the parts of it published by IZLAZ.com contain no measured alcohol level. Under the Criminal Code, the offense carries a prison sentence of two to ten years.
The indictment describes the act as follows:
“as a result of the defendant’s actions, the vehicle he was driving left the roadway to the right and struck, with its front right part, the front right corner of a parked vehicle located off the roadway”
The woman who was in the car with Bajatovic suffered serious bodily injuries. At his hearing at the prosecutor’s office, Bajatovic did not plead guilty and declined to answer questions.
Who was behind the wheel?
The whole dispute turns on this question. A young man who appears in the case file as a witness told prosecutors that he was driving and that Bajatovic sat in the passenger seat. He added that after the crash he went to look for help and mistakenly took his wife’s empty phone. The injured woman said she was sitting in the back and was asleep when the crash happened.
Prosecutors find that version illogical. They say the driver did not ask Bajatovic or the injured woman for a phone but set off uninjured toward a shop, even though other witnesses said slava celebrations were under way in nearby houses. They also see no sense in his failure to call an ambulance and the police, asking an acquaintance for a phone instead so he could call his wife. The indictment also points to discrepancies found in an analysis of cell tower data and call records between that witness and his wife.
Witnesses at the scene heard the impact and saw a younger man running away. Based on the documentation, testimony and expert analysis, prosecutors conclude that Bajatovic was the driver by his injuries and that the woman was sitting in front. Expert analysis also showed that the airbags deployed and that the seat belts were used improperly, tucked behind the back, so neither the driver nor the front passenger was buckled in. Prosecutors state:
“The specific injuries sustained by the defendant indicate precisely that he was the driver of the passenger vehicle at the critical moment, while it is ruled out by forensic medicine that the driver of a vehicle in such an accident would sustain no injuries, which discredits the version of events given by the defense of the defendant as well as the examined witnesses”
According to prosecutors, the driver the woman mentioned that evening works under Bajatovic, who is his boss. Given the force of the impact, experts consider it impossible for the witness who presented himself as the driver to have walked away uninjured.
What does the defense say?
Bajatovic did not answer IZLAZ.com’s phone calls or its written questions. His lawyer, Ljubomir Apro, first declined to speak to the portal and asked not to be given deadlines:
“Don’t set deadlines for me, nobody sets deadlines for me”
Later the same day, after the article was published, Apro responded to IZLAZ.com. He said:
“As defense counsel, I believe that after the evidence presented and the actions taken in the investigation, it has not been established that my client committed the criminal offense he is charged with, and I believe the indictment is legally and factually unfounded. That’s all”
Bajatovic is presumed innocent until a final verdict. The next hearing is on November 5 at the Basic Court in Novi Sad.
