Serbia hoping new police leadership will reduce corruption

Serbia hoping new police leadership will reduce corruption

The government said it is dissatisfied with the results of the fight against organised crime.

Senior government officials said they hope a dramatic change in the Serbian police leadership will improve efforts to eliminate corruption and ultimately lead to the arrest of top reputed crime bosses.

The government decided to fire five of the seven police chiefs after a dramatic meeting earlier last month.

Indications of changes emerged last month as Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said high-level police tried to blackmail him by saying his 16-year-old son participated in an incident.

After it was learned that no incident took place, Vucic called for an investigation.

At the same time, suspected cocaine trafficker Darko Saric stated before a Belgrade court that the case against him was staged by the chief of the criminal police administration, Rodoljub Milovic.

Saric also testified that Milovic took a bribe of several million euros from a rival crime gang to protect them from being charged.

Subsequently, President Tomislav Nikolic and Vucic met with Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic on June 20th.

After the meeting, Nikolic addressed citizens on state television and called for dismissals in the police leadership.

"I am not satisfied with the fight against crime within the police and with the rooting out of evil from the streets -- drug dealers and drug cartels. In the struggle against such evil that is destroying our society, no results were achieved in the past period, obviously because those criminal groups have aides, accomplices and informants within the interior ministry," Nikolic said.

Vucic said the government...