Milenijum Tim arrest warrant over Hotel Jugoslavija site

The Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade has issued the police a written order to locate and arrest the responsible persons of the company Milenijum Tim: Stojan Vujko and Ivan Bosnjak, along with Andreja Djulic, the responsible person at the firm Danube Riverside. The suspicion rests on work carried out without a valid building permit at the site of the former Hotel Jugoslavija in Zemun. Since November 10 the proceedings have been halted, because defense lawyers filed motions with the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office to recuse the prosecutors and expert witnesses.

The portal Nova.rs reported the order at 22:18 on November 10. A day later both prosecutor’s offices and both companies issued statements, and their accounts of what happened at the police station do not match.

What are they accused of?

The order was issued on suspicion that the three committed the criminal offense of building without a building permit under Article 219a of the Criminal Code. The Third Basic Prosecutor’s Office says it opened its investigation earlier and that, on its instruction, the competent construction inspectorate went to the site. According to the statement, all the documentation needed for further action has been collected.

According to Vreme, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure rejected Danube Riverside’s application for a building permit the same day, November 10. It concerns the first phase of a residential and commercial complex with an underground garage, which includes a nine-story hotel, on cadastral parcel 2442 in the Zemun cadastral municipality. Danube Riverside, the same source says, is owned by Milenijum Tim.

Two versions of events at the police station

According to the prosecutor’s statement, police officers first delayed acting on the order and asked for it in writing. Once that was done, the suspects were brought to the police station to be served a detention decision. At that point their lawyers announced that, the same day, they had submitted motions to the chief public prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office to recuse the chief prosecutor of the Third Basic Prosecutor’s Office, the prosecutor handling the case and two expert witnesses. As a result, the prosecutor’s office says, the law obliged the prosecutor to refrain from further action until the motions are decided. The office also denies that the suspects gave statements and were then released.

Milenijum Tim and Danube Riverside say otherwise. Their joint statement says Vujko, Bosnjak and Djulic held a conversation with the competent police authorities and then left the premises, and that “the persons named were not arrested, nor was police detention ordered for them.” The companies add that the construction documentation was delivered “the very next day,” that they gave the court experts and the construction inspector logistical support at the site, and that they are asking the media to correct reports of an arrest. In that statement Vujko is named as general director of Milenijum Tim, Bosnjak as deputy general director and Djulic as director of Danube Riverside.

The Third Basic Prosecutor’s Office replied that it leaves the reasons why the recusal motions were filed at that particular moment “to the judgment of the public.” It added that the motions were delivered to the Higher Prosecutor’s Office during the previous day and that it was not informed of this.

Why is the case waiting on the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office?

All four people the motions concern have already given their responses, and the case files, according to the Third Basic Prosecutor’s Office, are ready for urgent dispatch. The office claims, however, that it was told the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office would receive the documentation only on Thursday, November 12. It responded this way:

A state holiday cannot in itself be a reason to delay action in an urgent case.

The Third Prosecutor’s Office then publicly called on the Higher office to receive the files today and decide urgently on the recusal. At the same time it welcomed the company’s statement that its responsible persons are ready to cooperate.

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade said it has asked the Third for the case files and for a response from the chief prosecutor whose recusal is sought. As it puts it, “there is no statutory deadline for deciding on a recusal motion,” and the chief public prosecutor of the Higher office will decide as soon as possible, after studying the motion and receiving the files. The Higher office’s statement is also quoted as saying that “claims by some media that the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade does not work on a state holiday are not accurate.” The date of November 12 does not appear in its statement; only the Third Prosecutor’s Office gives it.

Who are Vujko and Bosnjak in sport?

Vujko and Bosnjak hold leading roles in Serbian sport. Stojan Vujko is president of the Assembly of the Crvena Zvezda Sports Society and president of the Management Board of the Crvena Zvezda Judo Club, a member of the FK Crvena Zvezda Management Board, vice president of the Judo Federation of Serbia and vice president of the Executive Board of the Olympic Committee of Serbia, where he chairs the Commission for Sports Infrastructure. Ivan Bosnjak is president of the Assembly of the Crvena Zvezda Judo Club and a member of the Sports Society’s Management Board. Milenijum Tim is the general sponsor of the Crvena Zvezda Judo Club.

According to Sport Klub, the same company took over the management and financing of GFK Dubocica from Leskovac at the end of July, through a public-private partnership model. The contracts were signed by Leskovac Mayor Goran Cvetanovic and Ivan Bosnjak.

The three are charged with a criminal offense, and guilt has not been established. What happens next depends on the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office ruling on the recusal: until it arrives, the Third Basic Prosecutor’s Office, by its own statement, is not acting on the case.