Latest / Best of: Features / Detentions, resignations, probes shake Serbia after students toppled strongman Vucic in election

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Detentions, resignations, probes shake Serbia after students toppled strongman Vucic in election · Best of: Features

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  Detentions, resignations, Probe shake Serbia after students toppled strongman Vuchik in election.
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  Written by Giovanna Geck. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice generated by Everlet. Belgrade, Serbia, the AP, detentions, resignations,
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  switching of sides, attempts to destroy evidence of wrongdoing. News has been
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  coming in at such a pace in the wake of former Serbian
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  strongman Aleksandr Vucic's electoral defeat on october twenty fifth, that a website
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  dubbed System Breakdown has been formed, with AI feeding the information in
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  real time. From high school students catching their principal supposedly trying to
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  destroy documentation to the closure of a bank believed linked to the
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  now out ousted Serbian Progressive Party, the turn of events has gripped
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  Serbia's public in the post election week. Somewhat chaotic reports are seen
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  as a sign that Vusik's carefully craft power system is collapsing swiftly
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  following the stunning victory of a student movement at the early parliamentary
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  ballot. The student-led list winners are yet to formally take over power
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  in the government administration, security agencies, and the army. But the seismic
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  shift in the balance of power is pushing events to unfold before
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  the actual takeover takes place. Fuchik says he is not afraid Despite
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  the electoral defeat, a defiant Vuchik, now described as the leader of
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  opposition, has continued with his daily appearances on loyal media, accusing the
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  student led movement of revolutionary terror and vowing to fight back. On
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  Sunday evening, Vuchuk told Pink Television that, naturally, this is hard for
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  my family and those who love me, but I am ready for
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  everything, and I will persist through anything. Denying crime links, Vuchik said
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  he is not afraid of possible arrest because there will be no
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  evidence against him. I don't sign anything, and nothing will be found,
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  he said. They don't have anything. Some prominent figures have been detained.
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  Jailed officials so far include Vucick's chief of criminal police, Marko Krikak,
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  and another senior police official, both suspected of abuse of office.
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  In connection with a high profile murder investigation. Kritok was notorious over
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  accusations that he personally threatened a female student with rape during anti
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  government protests, but he was not jailed over those allegations. On Monday,
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  authorities also remained Davour Makura, the owner of Private Alta Bank, which
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  is believed to be linked to Vucci SNS party, and whose license
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  has been revoked. Makura was allegedly caught trying to siphon away millions
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  of dollars and faces charges of abuse of office. Prosecutors are asked
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  to start working or resign. While waiting to form the new government,
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  the election winners have called on prosecutors and judges to start doing
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  their jobs or step down. Scores of investigations into alleged top level
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  corruption cases remained incomplete under the previous government, including one into a
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  november first, twenty twenty four, train station tragedy that triggered two years
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  of anti graft protests. Now the Serbian public is waiting to hear
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  what will come out of a review into some of they long
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  standing probes, after the student movement promised there will no longer be
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  untouchable officials. New complaints are piling up. Prosecutors have been swamped
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  with new complaints over incidents that vary from suspected election fraud to
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  threats and violence against protesters, journalists, and activists. Organized crime prosecutors
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  also initiated procedures to determine whether some of them had been placed
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  under illegal surveillance by they state security agency. On Monday, lawyer Ivan
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  Ninik alleged a criminal conspiracy involving a Justice Ministry official and over
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  three dozen prison wardens across Serbia, saying they pressured or bribed inmates
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  to vote for Vucic during last week's ballot. Ninnik presented what he
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  said were screenshots of online chats, with officials exchanging information about how
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  many votes the managed to gather. Vucic's SNS won overwhelmingly in Serbia's
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  prisons. In Mali Zvornik, on the border with Bosnia, police detained six
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  people accused of granting false residence papers to Bosnian citizens so they
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  could vote for Vucic's party at The
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  election Changes started first in the media, but Some of the mainstream
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  media in Serbia that were at the forefront of Vucic's
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  propaganda machinery have been the first to regroup. Previously staunchly pro Vusik
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  media outlets quickly adopted a more neutral position, while some television channels
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  cancelled programs altogether and owners reportedly fled the country. State RTS television
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  overhauled leadership and apologized to its viewers for biased reporting. But some
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  of Vucic's main mouthpieces, like the Informer and Pink broadcasters, remain loyal,
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  hosting the former leader daily in their programs. Vuczyk's party faces pressure
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  in cities and towns across the country to The election was for
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  Serbia's two hundred fifty member parliament and did not include local governments
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  across the country. Now, calls are mounting for early municipal elections. Vucic's
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  SNS lost in the capital, Belgrade, and most other towns, after it
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  previously controlled the country down to every village, with the exception of
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  one urban municipality in the southern city of Nys. Throughout Serbia, employees
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  in theaters, museums, culture associations, schools, and hospitals are demanding that SNS
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  appointed managers immediately step down. In Belgrade, fifth high school principal Ogjen
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  Mr. Valjevich denied that he was throwing away relevant school documentation. His
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  students pulled it out of garbage bins after calling the police. Vuczyk's
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  party's expiration date has passed, analyst Slobodan Stupar said, it will all
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  fall like dominoes.