Dragana Sotirovski Trial Postponed to September 30
Former Nis mayor Dragana Sotirovski missed her pretrial hearing due to illness for the second time since being charged with costing the city 460 million dinars.
The Higher Court in Nis, through its special department for combating corruption, has postponed the start of the trial against Dragana Sotirovski, the former mayor of Nis, for the second time. Her pretrial hearing had been scheduled for September 2, 2026, but the defendant did not appear in court. Her lawyer, Miroslav Ristic, said Sotirovski was unable to attend because of health problems, and that the court had been notified in advance. A new hearing has been set for September 30 at noon.
This is the second delay in the case. The pretrial hearing was first scheduled for June 10, 2026, but did not go ahead because the defense had requested the recusal of judges at both the Higher Court in Nis and the Appellate Court in Nis, along with a transfer of the case to a court in Belgrade or Kragujevac. All of those requests were denied, clearing the way for the proceedings to continue in Nis.
Explaining the recusal request, Ristic had earlier laid out why the defense doubted the court’s impartiality. In his written argument, he stated:
There are legal grounds for reasonable doubt about the impartiality of the judges handling this case, in both the Higher Court and the Appellate Court, because the proceedings are unfolding under unprecedented and sustained public pressure, with the presumption of innocence and the right to a defense being grossly violated.
In early July, the Appellate Court rejected the request to recuse the president of the Higher Court, Tomislav Trajkovic, and later rejected the request to recuse the Higher Court judges as well.
What does the indictment allege?
Sotirovski is charged with two counts of abuse of office, allegedly committed between March 2022 and July 2024. According to the indictment, the total damage suffered by the City of Nis amounts to 460,322,637 dinars. That figure includes roughly 250 million dinars in damage to the city budget and about 112 million dinars in personal gain.
Prosecutors say that Sotirovski, who at the time also commanded the Nis Emergency Situations Staff, hired the companies “Vodomonteri” and “Sim puk gradnja” for water supply and sewage works, bypassing the Public Procurement Law and paying above-market prices. According to the charges, the contracts were awarded under disaster-risk-reduction and emergency-management regulations instead of through the standard public procurement process.
The indictment also cites a payment of roughly 11.2 million dinars to consulting firms for services that, prosecutors allege, were never actually performed. Another line item is the purchase of a “Svarovski” wristwatch, paid for with 27,000 dinars from the city budget in July 2023, which police say was later found during a search of her apartment.
Defense says it will contest the charges
Ristic told the court that the defense has no interest in dragging out the proceedings.
“Our goal isn’t to drag this trial out indefinitely, because we’ve always dealt fairly with the court,” the lawyer said, adding that the defense has extensive material, both documentary evidence and witnesses, and sees no reason for delay on its side.
“We will try to prove that Dragana Sotirovski bears no criminal responsibility,” Ristic said.
Sotirovski herself has so far responded to questioning by remaining silent.
Arrest, detention and co-defendants
Sotirovski was arrested on February 21, 2025, at the Presevo border crossing while returning from Greece. The case was opened after findings by the State Audit Institution on how certain construction works had been contracted and financed, and in May 2025 an additional criminal complaint was filed against her, over which the Interior Ministry (MUP) at the time announced suspicions involving consulting services.
Her pretrial detention was extended several times during 2025, and she was released from custody near the end of that year. Since late December 2025, she has been under house arrest without electronic monitoring.
In the same case, four co-defendants have already received final verdicts based on plea agreements. They were sentenced to house arrest and ordered to return unlawfully obtained gains totaling roughly 85.3 million dinars.
The proceedings before the Higher Court in Nis are being handled by its corruption department, housed in the renovated former “Filip Kljajic” barracks. The next test for the case comes on September 30, when the court will determine only whether the procedural conditions for a main trial have been met, or whether another postponement follows.
