SAJ commander Zmiric answers Vulevic's appeal to police
In a statement issued by the Interior Ministry, the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit commander says a former commander who recorded an appeal a day earlier need not remind its members of their duty.
On October 23, 2026, Serbia’s Interior Ministry published a statement by the commander of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ), police colonel Igor Zmiric, replying to the unit’s former commander, Spasoje Vulevic. The trigger was Vulevic’s media appearances and an appeal he addressed a day earlier to colleagues in the police and security services.
What did Vulevic say on October 22?
Vulevic spoke on October 22 in a short video message recorded at the initiative of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCBP). The centre also published the text of the appeal on X. The former commander said:
“I call on all my colleagues, members of the police and security services, to remain faithful to the Constitution, the law and their professional duty.”
The same video features Katarina Petrovic, a police officer from Valjevo, retired police general Bogoljub Zivkovic, former Tutin police chief Iso Redzepovic and several other former officers. According to Danas, the BCBP appeal was signed by more than 300 former and serving members of the security services, among them former police director Vladimir Rebic and former Security Information Agency (BIA) director Sasa Vukadinovic. N1 reports that Vulevic is among roughly 300 former members of the services, including former heads of the BIA, the police and the Military Security Agency. The figures differ depending on who is counted, so we give them here as each outlet reports them. We wrote about the appeal by former intelligence chiefs on October 21.
What does the SAJ commander’s statement say?
Zmiric mentions neither the elections nor the BCBP in the statement. He addresses citizens and the public, as he puts it, and answers Vulevic by name:
“As commander of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit, I want to send a clear and unambiguous message to the citizens of the Republic of Serbia and the entire public. I stress that there is no need for any individual, and Spasoje Vulevic in particular, to remind SAJ members what their duties, obligations and professional tasks are.”
He then assesses the unit’s personnel. Zmiric said:
“All members of this elite unit are top professionals who know well their role in our country’s security system.”
He also explains what the unit bases its work on. In his words, the Serbian Interior Ministry’s Special Anti-Terrorist Unit “bases its work, its everyday conduct and all of its operational activities exclusively on strict respect for the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia and the laws in force.” The closing part of the statement reads:
“Our duty is to preserve peace, stability and the safety of all citizens, and SAJ will never depart from that mission, regardless of attempts to politicize the work of the unit in the public space.”
The statement does not say who, in the commander’s view, is behind that politicization, or whether the sentence refers to Vulevic’s appeal or to something else.
Two commanders, one unit
Vulevic retired in September 2025. He told the media at the time that he had been removed from his post beforehand. Zmiric’s appointment as head of SAJ was announced on November 7, 2025, and Vreme wrote in those days about his earlier association with Marko Kricak.
The unit was in the public eye earlier this year as well. N1 reported on members leaving SAJ, and the Interior Ministry responded then that these were personnel changes.
The commander’s statement, moreover, contains no claim about the number of people in the unit or about its tasks during elections. All that can be read from it is a message addressed to the public and to one named former commander.
