Serbia's criminal police chief Marko Kricak arrested in murder-probe abuse case

Arrests on Sunday

Serbian prosecutors detained Marko Kricak, 42, head of the criminal police, on Sunday, 1 November, together with Bosko Sekulovic, who leads the crime-fighting service within the criminal police. Both are suspected of abuse of office. According to chief prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic of the Higher Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, the two men abused their positions and neglected their professional duties while running an investigation into the May killing of a man described as a member of the local underworld, who was killed in a Belgrade restaurant. Stefanovic told reporters that the arrest was unrelated to the vote.

“This arrest has nothing to do with the outcome of the parliamentary elections.”

The Milic complaint

Veselin Milic, the former Belgrade police chief, was arrested three days after the restaurant killing on suspicion of failing to report a crime and its perpetrator, and of aiding the perpetrator. He spent nearly two months in detention. After his release he filed a criminal complaint against Kricak and Sekulovic, accusing them of supplying prosecutors with evidence against him in a selective, incomplete and false manner. Local media cited that complaint in July. Prosecutors say the conduct of the two officers caused damage and a serious violation of the rights of the former Belgrade police chief.

Allegations of manipulation and violence

Tanjug reports that prosecutors accuse Kricak of manipulating evidence so that a charge of aiding a murder was dropped. Prosecutors also accuse him of mistreating and intimidating peaceful demonstrators. In August 2025, officers of the JZO protection unit took a group of students into the basement of the government building in Belgrade. According to the Tanjug account, Kricak, then head of that unit, personally led the operation and allegedly beat a female student and threatened her with rape. Kricak is also suspected of mistreating and assaulting a person during the murder investigation. Both officers were placed in 48-hour preventive detention while they await questioning by a prosecutor.

Career at the head of the police

Kricak began his working life as a car salesman before joining the civilian intelligence agency BIA as a loyalist of Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). From July 2023 he commanded the JZO protection service, having been deputy commander in 2022. He was appointed head of the criminal police on 30 December 2025, with the rank of police lieutenant colonel. Local media linked his rise through the force to his loyalty to Vucic. The opposition student list demanded his resignation on 29 October.

Political backdrop

The arrests follow early parliamentary elections in which a list backed by the student movement won by a wide margin, defeating the camp of Vucic, who had been in power since 2012 and is now described as a former president. N-tv reports that the handover of government has not yet taken place, although the power structures of the Vucic system are already eroding. Handelsblatt describes the arrest as one of the first steps against the outgoing ruling apparatus.