Serbia: Police chief arrested after election for abuse of office

The head of Serbia's criminal police directorate has been arrested and charged with abuse of office, state media reported on Sunday.

Marko Kricak is accused of suppressing and manipulating an investigation into the murder in May of a suspected criminal underworld figure in a Belgrade restaurant.

The 42-year-old was seen as a supporter of defeated Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, whose right-wing populist camp was defeated by the opposition Student List in parliamentary elections on October 25.

Indeed, he has also been accused by student groups of "brutality" in the police response to peaceful anti-Vucic demonstrations.

The removal of Kricak and other Vucic loyalists in Serbia's police and intelligence apparatus was one of student leaders' demands.

But Belgrade's chief prosecutor, Nenad Stefanovic, denied a connection between the student movement's demands and Kricak's arrest.

"This arrest has no link with ... the result of the legislative elections," he told journalists.

Nevertheless, the arrest of a senior police officer regarded as close to the former regime is being seen as an example of the strongholds of the Vucic system slowly eroding.

Kricak worked as a car salesman before being recruited into Serbia's domestic intelligence agency, the BIA, and was a loyal supporter of Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

In July 2023, he was appointed commander of the Serbian police's personal protection unit (JZO).

It was in this position that he is alleged to have personally led the abduction of a group of university students, allegedly assaulting one female student and threatening to rape her in the basement of a government building in Belgrade.

At the end of 2025, he was appointed head of the Serbian Criminal Police.