"All chiefs of police directorates to be sacked"

"All chiefs of police directorates to be sacked"

Police Director Milorad Veljović will stay in his position, Vučić also announced.

"Veljović, too, would have been dismissed today had he not been selected in a competition, not because he is guilty, but on moral grounds," he told a news conference on Friday after a meeting of the Council for National Security.

He added that the sacked directorate chiefs will be temporarily replaced by their deputies.

"I was looking for results in the fight against drug cartels, but people in the MUP were more interested in some internal things," Vučić said.

The prime minister explained that this decision was made in line with an initiative of the minister of the interior, and with agreement of the police director.

"I hope that some people have learned a lesson not to be abused by those who wish to achieve their political desires at the expense of their reputation," he was quoted as saying.

Vučić remarked that "Darko Šarić will not give orders to the government of Serbia," that he thought Criminal Police Directorate chief Rodoljub Milović - whom the suspected drug lord accused of corruption - was "an honest policeman" and that he had the same opinion even before Milović took a polygraph test.

"But as Darko Šarić will not rule Serbia, so won't Ljubiša Buha Čume," he said, in reference to the protected witness.

"Unfortunately, many have joined the struggle between Čume and Šarić, but Serbia will not participate. Not to mention the impact of the tabloids. And Mr. (Milo) Đukanović had nothing to do with this. He was flabbergasted," Vučić said.

He added that "all statements concerning the Zemun Clan that have been published in recent days are concoctions of Ljubiša Buha Čume."

The prime minister also stated that "Serbia will be a normal, decent and orderly country in which the police take care of the citizens, not of politics."

"I want to tell the citizens of Serbia that those who have dirtied their hands with crime, who are neck deep in corruption scandals, will not find free air in Serbia. I am confident that we will be able to do even better, that more people will feel safe and secure, and that they will hear fewer stories about one (person) being like that, and other like that, but that we will in 2018 finish the job and be able to say that we are ready for the EU," Vučić was quoted as saying.