Senjak: complaint against three of Milic's officers dismissed

Belgrade’s Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office dismissed on June 3 the criminal complaint against three police officers, members of the security detail of dismissed Belgrade police chief Veselin Milic. The office stated there are no grounds to suspect the three of committing crimes prosecuted ex officio, because they were not at the scene when the murder took place.

The complaint was filed by the Criminal Police Directorate. The officers had been suspected of failing to report a crime and its perpetrator, and of aiding the perpetrator after the act, in connection with the murder at restaurant 27 in Senjak on May 12. The scope of this decision matters. It is a prosecutorial assessment of one segment of the case, the one concerning the security detail, not a verdict on the whole affair. The main investigation, into Milic and ten other persons, remains open.

How did prosecutors justify dismissing the complaint?

According to the statement from the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, an analysis of surveillance camera footage, phone records and base station data showed the accused were not in the restaurant at the time of the crime. The office says the official vehicles carrying the officers were moving away from the restaurant area and heading toward the address, that is, toward a police station.

The reasoning rests on several elements:

• surveillance camera footage tracking the official vehicles that evening,
• phone records of the accused officers,
• base station data confirming a location away from the restaurant.

There are no grounds for suspicion that they committed crimes prosecuted ex officio, the statement from Belgrade’s Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office reads.

The three officers are identified by their initials in the statement. The office concludes the suspects were not, nor could they have been, at the crime scene, which, by that assessment, removed the suspicion of failing to report the crime and of aiding the perpetrator.

What the dismissal means for the main inquiry

The decision applies solely to the three officers from the security detail and does not affect the status of the other persons in the case. Veselin Milic was questioned again the same day, June 3, and presented a defense regarding new evidence. The investigation into him and ten other persons continues over the events in Senjak.

In other words, dismissing the complaint against the security detail is not an acquittal in the whole case, nor can it be read as one. In one segment, prosecutors concluded there are no grounds for prosecution, while in the broader part of the case they continue to gather evidence and question suspects.

For a public that has followed the case since early May, this decision separates two questions that were often conflated. One is whether the dismissed chief’s security detail had any role that night, and the other is the wider responsibility prosecutors have yet to establish as the proceedings continue.

In your view, how will dismissing the complaint against the three officers affect public confidence in how the Senjak investigation proceeds?