Gendarmes indicted over incident involving PM's brother

Gendarmes indicted over incident involving PM's brother

The incident happened as the Gendermes were providing security for the Pride Parade march held in Belgrade on September 28. Vucic and Mali were accompanies by members of the Military Police.

The daily Politika said it learned from the prosecution that the indictment was raised due to suspicion that the police officers "committed the crime of assault on a military person on duty in concurrence with the criminal offense of abuse and torture."

Apart from these, the defendants were indicted for "abuse of office." The Gendarmes have also been named: Predrag Mitrovic, Slavko Stojanovic, Dragan Savic, Dalibor Djordjevic, Zlatko Gigic, Boban Lekic, Mitar Milosavljevic and Rade Matic.

Simultaneously with this decision, the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade rejected a criminal complaint filed by Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic against the two members of the Military Police, identified with their initials as S.S. and S.J.

The two were providing security for Vucic and Mali, and ombudsman said in the complaint that they failed to comply with the verbal orders issued by the Gendarmes, and while attempting to pass through a cordon set up by the police and enter the space protected by them, physically clashed with the officers.

A deputy senior prosecutor earlier this week questioned the accused Gendarmes, after which he decided to raise the indictment. Their hearing was delayed for nearly four months due to the strike of lawyers, considering that the suspects have the right to choose their legal representation. During the investigation proceedings all proposed witnesses were heard, the daily writes.

According to unofficial information, the Gendarmes did not change the statements given to the police a few days after the incident. They said they noticed a group of four unknown persons moving toward them shortly before the incident. As the group "resembled persons who wished to attack participants in the Pride Parade," the four were asked for their IDs once they reached the cordon.

"One of them produced something that looked like an ID from his pocket, and along with a series of insults, said he was a member of the Serbian Army. At one point it seemed as if they wanted to break through the cordon and physically confront the police. After a while there was physical altercation," said the Gendarmes.