Senjak Case Turns Into a Power Struggle in Serbian Police

The Senjak case, the investigation into a murder at the “27” restaurant in Belgrade, has turned into an open conflict inside the police. Ousted Belgrade Police Directorate chief Veselin Milic, formerly also deputy director of police, has filed a criminal complaint through his attorney with the Belgrade Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office against two of the most senior officers in the crime police.

The complaint was made public on August 6 and names the head of the Crime Police Directorate, Marko Kricak, and the head of the Crime Suppression Service, Bosko Sekulovic. Milic accuses them of abuse of office, arguing that they presented the evidence against him “selectively, incompletely and untruthfully,” and that before they reported him they already had surveillance camera footage, mobile base station data and statements from witnesses and other suspects in hand.

What Remains of the Original Complaint Against Milic

The murder that triggered the case took place on May 12 at a restaurant on Senjak. Milic was arrested on May 15, spent more than 50 days in custody, and had his detention lifted in early July, since when he has been defending himself while free.

In that period the substance of the charges against him shifted. The Belgrade Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office dropped the charge of aiding an offender after a crime for lack of evidence, leaving only failure to report a crime against Milic. Spatial and temporal analysis, base station data and video footage did not support the original complaint’s claim that Milic had been at the restaurant at the time of the murder. Charges against three members of his security detail were also dropped.

Milic builds his own complaint on that shift. In it, he states:

“The evidence subsequently submitted and presented, including the spatial and temporal analysis, base station data and video footage, did not confirm the allegations from the criminal complaint, but rather led to its dismissal.”

In procedural terms, Milic is arguing that the two chiefs handed the prosecutor a factual account that did not match the evidence they actually held. The complaint also claims their goal was to sustain a “pre arranged construct” against him.

Why This Is a Political Matter, Not Just a Police One

Milic was not just any police officer. He ran the country’s largest police directorate and served as deputy director of police, a post filled by a decision at the top of the ministry. Kricak and Sekulovic remain in their posts today. Two layers of the same hierarchy are now accusing each other before the same prosecutor’s office.

There is also a procedural knot that will be hard to untangle quietly. Milic’s complaint will be decided by the Belgrade Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, the same office handling the case against him and the one that already dropped the most serious counts in the complaint filed by Kricak and Sekulovic. Every decision, whether to open an investigation or dismiss the complaint, will be read as a signal of which of the two police factions has backing at the top of government.

The Response Came From Outside the Institutions

Four days after the complaint became public, the other side spoke out, though not through a statement from the police or the prosecution. Nina Sobota, a public figure close to the government, posted a message about Milic claiming he had fled to Croatia.

“Betrayal is a choice”

For understanding the political weight of the case, that is as telling as the complaint itself. When a former Belgrade police chief, a man the government itself once appointed, is branded a traitor in a public space close to that same government, the message is not meant only for him but for everyone in the system weighing whether to put their own version of events in writing.

The Interior Ministry, for its part, has not responded to press questions about Milic’s employment status, whether he has been reinstated, or in what role. He was suspended and removed as chief, but no official information on his employment status has been released.

Two concrete deadlines remain that will move the story forward. The first is the prosecution’s decision on the complaint against Kricak and Sekulovic. The second is the case against Milic for failing to report a crime, in which he is defending himself while free and will have to repeat in court what he wrote in his own complaint. Until then, the Senjak case is being handled as a criminal matter and playing out as a political one.