(Im)potent state? (part one)

(Im)potent state? (part one) With hoods over their heads, and covered faces, allegedly all in the name of patriotism, nationalism, fight for the Serbian issue and love towards sport, those who call themselves football fans turn into an army of bandits, often for the sake of different individuals. Not only are they demolishing the city and beating out everyone who gets in their way in the last years, but often pleading patriotism serves as a cover for various criminal offences. Against individuals and fan groups of football clubs of Red Star, Partizan and Rad, more than one hundred criminal complaints have been filed for criminal offences such as extortion, kidnapping, heavy theft, violent behaviour, selling narcotic drugs, inflicting severe body injuries and even attempted murder or murder in the past several years, according to the research done by “Insider”. However, these criminal complaints have not yet been processed by the ministry of the police until the end, or were dismissed by the Prosecution or the Prosecution filed indictments, but the lawsuits last for years. The result is that there are no final verdicts to these heavy criminal offences. Thanks to such a system, those who were accused of committing criminal offences mostly remained free and continued to commit new and more severe criminal offences. Finally, when the Partizan fans beat the French citizen Bruce Taton in September 2009, who eventually died due to the injuries suffered, everybody was shocked, from the president of the state, all the way to the media. However, a question arises why did the state institutions allow the extremists that call themselves football fans, to become so powerful that no one can say anything about them, starting from the media, via managements of the clubs, all the way to the politicians, for years now. By means of insufficient and inadequate reactions of the judicial system, the state has practically legalised violence. - Kill, slaughter, annihilate the Shiptar! Politicians have often justified the acts of the perpetrators, while club managements have almost never clearly condemned the acts of those fans, and those alike. Apart from this, honourable chairs are reserved for politicians, judges, financial police and public figures in club managements. At the same time, stadiums are an ideal place for starting various subjects, beginning from the change in the management board of clubs and the change of government, but also for calls for lynching. Therefore, no one wants, or no one can confront them. The one thing in common for the fan leaders of Red Star, Partizan and Rad is no love towards the favourite club or cheering, but numerous criminal offences for which they were accused of in the previous years. Bearing in mind that there are more than one hundred criminal offences they are accused of, in this show you will only see a part of what they are accused. One of the best examples of the responsibility of the judicial system for what is going on when it comes to violators, i.e. individuals from cheering groups, is the example of Djordje Prelic, one of the leaders of the Partizan cheer group. Today, he is at large for being accused of organising the murder of Bruce Taton. Up until then, several criminal complaints were filed against him for different criminal offences, but despite all this, he was a free citizen. Djordje Prelic was born in 1985, and is one of the leaders of the Partizan fan group “Alkatraz”. According to the information we obtained according to the Law on Information Availability, in the past several years more than 20 criminal complaints have been filed against Djordje Prelic for different criminal offences. Up to this day, according to the largest number of these complaints, there are no final verdicts. When he fled the country after the murder of Bruce Taton, the Minister of police, Ivica Dacic has informed the public that he is one of the more known drug-dealers. The question is then, how is it possible that he was a free man at all. According to the research done by “Insider”, Djordje Prelic was accused of selling narcotic drugs in 2003 even, but for such an offence he was sentenced to 6 months of prison after the verdict made by the District court. In the past several years, the police have filed several criminal complaints against Djordje Prelic accusing him for: violent behaviour, unauthorised possession, making, exchanging and distributing arms and munitions, unauthorised production and distribution of narcotic drugs, criminal offence of heavy theft. However, only one lawsuit was ended by a sentencing verdict for 6 months of prison. According to all other complaints, either the prosecutions dropped the charges, or raised the charges, but the lawsuits are in process for years. Eventually it came to be that he was accused of organising the murder in September 2009. Djordje Prelic is at large today. Aleksandar Vavic is one of the leaders of the Partizan fan group “Alkatraz”. He was born in 1986. Vavic was one of the group leaders of Red Star, and today he is one of the group leaders of Partizan. According to the information by “Insider”, the police have filed 12 criminal complaints for different criminal offences in the past several years. There are no final verdicts up to this day. One of the criminal complaints against Vavic was filed in January 2005 when he was brought into custody under the suspicion of inflicting severe injuries to Stefan Gajic and Darko Kuric by knife. However, his detention was cancelled after consultations with the Fifth Municipal court judge, Nebojsa Bojic. The charge was submitted to the District court in a regular way. The official response to the TV show “Insider” stated that the District court has cancelled the process. Since the process was cancelled, only a couple of months later, in 2005, Vavic was also accused of participating in a fight in which he attacked Igor Bosnic and Obrad Obradovic along with 3 more people while returning from a basketball match Partizan – Cibona. As stated in the complaint, Obradovic received a stab wound in the right heart ventricle and Bosnic received a stab wound in the stomach, suffering liver damage on the same occasion. The Third prosecution filed a charge in 2005 even based upon the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police and the inquiry conducted, but the lawsuit has not yet been brought to an end. “Insider” got a response from the Third prosecution which stated that the Council president of the Third Municipal court, Marija Sekulic scheduled 14 main inquests since 2005, but none was held due to, as stated in the official response, the absence of the plaintive. It is unknown whether the reason for the absence of the plaintive is fear or threat or something else, but the question is will the prosecution make some action or will the inquests be cancelled until the statute of limitations. According to the research made by “Insider”, there have been several criminal complaints filed against Aleksandar Vavic for criminal offences such as: violent behaviour, unauthorised possession of arms, inflicting severe body injuries, burglary and theft. Almost no lawsuit was ended. There have been no final verdicts so far. Majk Halkijevic, born in 1975, was one of the group leaders of Partizan. Halkijevic was sentenced 4 times for charges such as heavy theft, unauthorised possession of arms and causing general threat. He was on trial for causing general threat for firing a rocket on the stadium of Partizan in ’99 which killed Aleksandar Radovic. Nikola Dedovic – Dzoni was also on the indictment, the current group leader of the “Alkatraz” group, but the prosecutor resigned from prosecuting him. However, that offence was not qualified in the indictment as murder, but as causing general threat, so he was sentenced to 1 year and 11 months of prison according to the verdict of the second Municipal court, the court council which was presided by Judge Natasa Albijanic. Alen Kostic – “Kubi” is one of the group leaders of the “South Family” group. He was born in 1986 and 14 criminal complaints were filed against him by 2006 for heavy criminal offences. He was accused of inflicting severe body injuries even in 2004. Namely, he came to an improvised basketball court in Cukaricka padina with a group of about 20 people, most of them wearing Partizan symbols; they had metal bars in their hands, baseball bats, wooden bars, glass bottles and knives. About a dozen people were playing basketball or were sitting on nearby benches. There were minors among them. They attacked the people present without any cause. Alen Kostic had a knife in his hand and attacked a minor F. D. who had his pleura pierced. M. D. was stabbed in the area of his right thorax. N. G. was stabbed in the neck and L. L. was cut in his right upper arm. The group of assaulters fled after that. The majority of the injured had severe body injuries, which were life threatening. In 5 years, 14 criminal complaints were filed against Alen Kostic for criminal offences such as violent behaviour, burglary, theft, inflicting severe body injuries. Branislav Pencic was only one year prior to this accused of selling drugs. Namely, as stated in another indictment, police officers of the police office in Obrenovac were informed that the accused Pencic has for some time been involved in drug sales in the territory of Obrenovac, and that he obtained drugs from John Does in Belgrade. One verdict was reached after all that when he was sentenced to prison for 10 months, but that verdict was cancelled as well. Namely, Pencic was indicted on January 24, 2007 for a criminal offence of preventing official personnel in conducting their duties. The Municipal court ruled in April finding Pencic guilty and sentencing him to 10 months in prison. Ruling according to the appeal of the defendant, the District court in Belgrade cancelled the first instance verdict and returned the subject to a new trial. The procedure is still in progress. According to a research made by the “Insider”, several criminal complaints were filed against Branislav Pencic until 2008, such as: violent behaviour, unauthorised production, possession and distribution of narcotic drugs, kidnapping, assault on an official, theft. These are only some of the criminal offences for which the individuals from the fan groups of Partizan were accused. Criminal complaints, for different criminal offences were filed against other individuals from the football club Partizan’s fan groups in the previous years, but neither according to those complaints, nor according to the research made by the “Insider” are there final verdicts. One of the examples is the criminal complaint which was filed against two group leaders of Partizan football club after the broadcast of a documentary about the hooligans on the Discovery Channel. Namely, Partizan fans waved their guns in front of the camera and showed some drugs in 2007. “The real football factories” TV show clip. - Grobari meet each month for a party. You can find food, drinks, drugs and karaoke there…But not everything is fun, because this group is armed and dangerous! - When we have guns, we fight with guns. When we don’t have guns, we fight without guns. A criminal complaint was filed against Robert Poljak and Sinisa Pantovic in April 2008 to the Second prosecution, who were shown on the clip holding guns. “Insider” received an official response from the Second prosecution saying that the process for that criminal offence is still in progress. The responsibility of state institutions, i.e. the judicial system is obvious when it comes to one of the Partizan group leaders, Djordje Prelic. There is one striking justified question; would he have been at large today, and would he have been accused of organising the murder of Bruce Taton, if all complaints filed against him in the previous several years were processed until the end. The case is the same with individuals from the fan groups of the football club Red Star. E.g. Velibor Dunjic, one of the leaders of Red Star fans was arrested only recently according to an indictment which states that he was involved in murder. For years, plenty of criminal complaints were filed against him for severe criminal offences, but almost none of them were processed until the end, so it was possible in the end for him to be convicted for attempted murder. Velibor Dunjic – “Velja” is 24 and is one of the leaders of the Red Star group “Belgrade Boys”. His imperious conduct which was often unsanctioned was explained by many by the fact that his father is a retired officer of the police, and that Dunjic himself often threatened the policemen by mentioning the name of his father. According to the research done by “Insider”, 19 criminal complaints were filed against Dunjic since 2008 which state that he has committed at least 31 criminal offences. Dunjic was a free man so he was accused of attempted murder in April 2008. Uros Avramovic, one of the leaders of the Red Star fans was also reported along with Dunjic. In April 2008 they were accused of committing several criminal offences together with several John Does at Ada Ciganlija in the restaurant “Kalipso”. As stated in the report, they physically assaulted Andrija Corugic after a verbal dispute who was sitting on the raft. They kicked him, hit him with their hands and bottles which were on the table, which caused a skull fracture in Corugic. After that, they fired several gunshots at Corugic hitting him in the left forearm and right elbow and left the raft. Dunjic and Avramovic were at large in the time of submitting the charge to the District prosecution. Dunjic was arrested in Sweden on November 20, 2008 according to the wanted list of the Serbian branch of Interpol which was issued for attempted murder. The head of Delije was marked by the police as one of the leaders of the new Zemun clan which had 34kg of marijuana confiscated. Uros Avramovic was arrested in June 2009 in Frankfurt. Although there are several criminal complaints for severe criminal offences, there are no final verdicts against him to this day according to the official responses we received. Velibor Dunjic was known to the police for years back for his violent behaviour. He addressed the police officers in December 2006 after an attempt to look at his ID in the following words: (as stated in the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police) - Who are you asking an ID from, you Indian? I’m gonna kill you. I’m the sole ruler, you motherfuckers! A criminal complaint was filed against him for the criminal offence of preventing an official in performing their duties in December 2006. The First prosecution filed the indictment the very same year. Two years later, the First Municipal court reached a verdict in which they sentenced Dunjic to 4 years probation or 10 months in prison. The First prosecution filed a complaint against the verdict. In December 2003 Dunjic was accused of causing general threat after a shooting and wounding a young man at the bus station. He was in custody, but the prosecutor Gordana Mijailovic decided to cancel his detention and decided that the criminal complaint should be filed in a regular manner. The Fourth prosecution filed the indictment but the main inquest is still in progress, i.e. for full 6 years in the council of judge Dusan Milenkovic As stated in the second criminal complaint, in July 2006 he threw around and kept breaking the inventory in a café in Novi Beograd and harassed the worker, and at one point, he even slapped her on the cheek. When the owner got to the café and tried to protect the worker, Dunjic assaulted him as well by hitting him with an ashtray in the head and then leaving. A police pursuit was issued against him. A couple of days later, Dunjic addressed them in the following words when the policemen asked him for his ID (as stated in the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police): - Who do you think you are, you motherfuckers, I’m gonna fucking kill all of you... Who do you think you are to turn me in, I remembered the faces of all of you, you motherfuckers...! In the course of the arrest, he even hit a policeman. Dunjic was taken into hearing after the consultations with the prosecutor Tatjana Sekulic, and according to her instructions, a criminal complaint was filed in a regular manner. He was 13 days into custody, when the Fourth court council ruled for the cancellation of his custody. An indictment was filed and the main inquest is in progress for 3 years now. On August 2, 2007, according to some statements from another criminal complaint, Dunjic showed up with Denis Mekic and Marko Ljubicic at the club “Brodarac” at the old fair. After coming for several times and harassing the employees, security workers did not want to open the doors for them which caused the group, lead by Dunjic, to throw bricks at the club but also to fire gunshots. The whole incident was filmed with restaurant surveillance cameras. The complaint for this criminal offence was submitted to the Fourth prosecution which issued a claim for conducting an investigation. Despite the existence of the video, the investigation lasts for 4 years now. The investigative judge is Ruzica Zivanovic. Velibor Dunjic was free until an attempted murder when a wanted list was issued after him according to which he was arrested in 2008. According to the research made by “Insider”, he was accused of several severe criminal offences: assault on an official while performing their duties and violent behaviour at sport manifestations as well as distracting an official in performing duties regarding security, participation in fights and shootouts, unauthorised production and distribution of narcotic drugs and for several heavy thefts. Uros Avramovic is one of the leaders of the Red Star fans. Up to this day 15 criminal complaints were filed against him. According to the research of “Insider”, there are no final verdicts. He was arrested on June 18, 2009 in Frankfurt because he was eventually accused of attempted murder. In April 2005, a criminal complaint was filed against Avramovic for production, possession and distribution of narcotic drugs to the District court in Belgrade. As stated in the charge, Avramovic was buying drugs from John Does in the period from April 2004 – April 2005; heroin, in quantities of 100gr for 17 euro, and then he took the drugs to his apartment where he packed it in smaller packets of 5-20gr and sold it to the Belgrade drug users for a price of 20 euro per gram. The District court, in response to “Insider” stated that the process against Avramovic is still in progress since the first instance rule was cancelled. Avramovic first participated in the fight with several John Does in front of the club “Star” around 5am when the police tried to get involved. On that occasion Avramovic was shouting the following words (as stated in the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police): - Who the hell are you?! Who are you?! My sweatshirt is more expensive then the whole Ministry of Police! He spat a policeman on that occasion in the face. When Avramovic got arrested, Velibor Dunjic, who also participated in the fight, approached the policemen and said (as stated in the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police): - What do you want? My dad is your colleague, you pussies. Why are you taking in my friends? According to another criminal complaint, Uros Avramovic came to club “Plasnik” on May 12, 2007 with a group of friend, fans of which he is the leader, and immediately after entering, he started riots and fights. A security guard was hit in the head with a bottle and after that, Avramovic pointed a gun at him, for which he did not have a licence. He was interrogated in the presence of the lawyer Mirko Djordjevic. The investigative prosecutor in charge was Irena Bjelos. On June 1 at 5am, he was sentenced a 48-hour detention which was cancelled the very next day at 13.15h for unknown reasons. The complaint was submitted to the First prosecution. The reply to the “Insider” stated that the indictment was raised in December 2008, but no inquest has been scheduled up to this day in the First Municipal court. The prosecution has allegedly urged the court to schedule the main inquest. On December 10, 2006, Avramovic came to the Ambulance to get informed about the injuries his friend Velibor Dunjic suffered. Dunjic was taken to the Ambulance by the police after a fight in the Belgrade club “Underground”. When he saw the policemen, Avramovic started insulting them and started behaving in an uncontrollable manner and was slamming the doors of the Ambulance. When the policemen tried to take him out of the Ambulance, Avramovic jumped at one of them and bit him above the left ear, and then bit another policeman by the leg and them hit him with the head in the thorax which caused a fraction of the sternum. This criminal complaint was dismissed according to the official response from the Second prosecution. According to the research made by the “Insider”, several criminal complaints were filed against Uros Avramovic for severe criminal offences such as: violent behaviour, burglary, unauthorised possession of arms. There are no final verdicts for the majority of these complaints up to this day. Drazen Dragas – “Draza”, or “Lurch” is one of the leaders of the Red Star fans and he is 26 years old. He was arrested recently because a gun was found in his possession for which he did not have a licence. The prosecutor asked the First instance court to determine custody not only because of the influence on the witnesses, but also because of the danger that he might repeat the crime again, because Dragas had multiple accusations. However, according to our information, the First instance court dismissed the request of the Prosecution. The same reply came from the District court. The council president was the District judge, Nadezda Mijatovic. According to the research made by the “Insider”, the police have filed more than 15 criminal complaints against Drazen Dragas since 2003. However, there are no final verdicts up to this day. Dragas was accused of unauthorised production, distribution and possession of narcotic drugs. The police have arrested a group of young people, among which was Dragas, while buying and selling marijuana. This group had with them 41 packets of marijuana, weighing a total of 214.64gr. When he was taken in, he threatened the policeman multiple times (as stated in the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police): - When I get out, I’m gonna fuck you, you motherfucking cop. The complaint for the unauthorised possession and distribution of narcotic drugs was submitted to the District prosecution in Belgrade which raised the indictment. However, according to the information obtained by “Insider”, a release verdict was reached in the lawsuit. The judge that ruled the verdict with the excuse that there is no sufficient evidence was Zivota Djoincevic, who was arrested in the operation “Sablja”, and afterwards was acquitted. The prosecution appealed for the release verdict. The criminal complaint was filed against Dragas in 2007 for the criminal offence of burglary. As stated in the response to “Insider” the process was cancelled after the investigation. Drazen Dragas is a member of the Assembly of the Football club “Red Star”. Multiple criminal complaints were filed against him for severe criminal offences: drug selling, violent behaviour, burglary. However, there are no final verdicts up to this day. Vuckovic Marko, called “Mare” and “The Commandant” is 32 and is the leader of the “Red Star” group “Ultras Boys”. According to the research by “Insider”, 8 criminal complaints were filed against Marko Vuckovic since ’95 to this day, and he is guilty of 11 criminal offences. There are no final verdicts. His father, Ratko Vuckovic, Assembly member of the Football club of Red Star recently testified as the defense witness at the trial for a Red Star fan, Uros Mitic. He said that he did not see Misic attack the member of the Gendarmerie Nebojsa Trajkovic with a torch. One of the members of the Assembly of Red Star is (his son) Marko Vuckovic. The last in a row of criminal complaints against Marko Vuckovic is the one where he is suspected of inflicting severe body injuries. As stated in the complaint, he was approached by Sava Milicevic in October 2008 in the urban centre of Senjak, a woman who lives nearby and told him not to sell drugs anymore, or she would call the police. Vuckovic assaulted Sava and by hitting her with his hands and feet, inflicted severe body injuries, and then moved away. The police have filed a report against him. The Second prosecution raised the indictment, but the process in the Second court is still in progress. A charge was filed against him in 2005 because he was preventing an authorised official from performing their security duties, because he assaulted a policeman who had been in the “spider” vehicle belonging to the Parking Service. The Second prosecution has raised an indictment, but the process in the Second court is still in progress for that criminal offence since 2005. In 2004, a charge was filed for the case of a heavy burglary and inflicting light body injuries. The District prosecution states for “Insider” that the process was dismissed according to this criminal complaint. These are only some of the criminal complaints which were filed against some individuals from the Red Star fan groups in the past few years. Complaints for several criminal offences were filed against other individuals from the Red Star fan groups. Preclusions do not exist even up to this day. The situation is the same with the individuals from the Rad fan groups “United Forces”. There are several complaints filed against them for causing religious and national hatred. Fans of Rad are known for their songs such as “Knife, Barb Wire, Srebrenica” and “Kill, Slaughter. Annihilate the Shiptar”. They present themselves as patriots and declare everyone else who do not think the same as they do, traitors. However, the police have filed dozens of criminal complaints against the leaders of Rad fan groups, among other things, for distributing narcotic drugs: Dusko Vujicic – criminal complaint for possession and distribution of narcotic drugs; Dejan Majstorovic – criminal complaint for inflicting light body injuries; Marko Gusic – 2 criminal complaints for causing national, religious and racial hatred and participating in a fight; Dragan Supurovic – 8 criminal complaints for unauthorised production, distribution of narcotic drugs, causing national, religious and racial hatred, hiding, endangering public traffic, criminal offence of murder and inflicting light body injuries; Vladimir Kovacevic – 4 criminal complaints for assaulting an official, causing general threat, participating in a fight and heavy theft; Nikola Vidovic – 8 criminal complaints, for burglary, causing national, religious and racial hatred, severe body injuries; Srdjan Rajkovic – 5 criminal complaints, causing national, religious and racial hatred, for burglary, endangering public traffic and endangering safety.; The situation is the same with all these criminal complaints as it is in the cases of Red Star and Partizan. Court processes last for years, and there are mostly no final verdicts. You will not be able to hear responses of the accuses or their lawyers who represent them regarding the suspicions that the processes are stalled until the statute of limitation because the fans would go to the houses of the judges, witnesses or the plaintive, so fear may be the reason why they retreat, or to their best for the process to go into statute of limitation. All the lawyers refused to speak for “Insider”, i.e. refused to answer many questions. For example, lawyers who represent the fans of Red Star are Maja Trkulja and Jugoslav Tintor. Both of them refused to speak for “Insider” saying that “The police have too much influence upon you, and your show is a predictor of what will happen”. After being asked what had happened after the serial “Official misuse” regarding corruption in the institutions in charge, Jugoslav Tintor persistently repeated that he did not like the concept of the show. He, as well as everybody else, was offered to look at the show prior to the broadcast so that they may be assured that their responses were not edited and taken out of context. However, such conditions were not suitable either. A serious fight against extremists and hooligans which was announced by the representatives of the state after the murder of Bruce Taton, has come down to the fact that the republic prosecutor has filed an initiative for banning fan groups and subgroups of Red Star, Partizan and Rad, and also the right-hand organisations. However, all fan groups have their leaders, against whom dozens of criminal complaints have been filed in the previous years, according to the research made by “Insider”, for severe criminal offences. The processes are mostly still in progress. An issue raised here questions the ban against fan groups instead of processing lawsuits against individuals from those fan groups till the end. Slobodan Vukolic, chief of Police for the city of Belgrade: I can tell you that the perpetrators of just 3 football clubs have committed 289 criminal offences up to this day, which have nothing to do violence on sport manifestations. There is murder, unauthorised possession and trade, distribution of narcotic drugs, extortion, causing racial, religious, national hatred, violent behaviour, unauthorised possession of arms and munitions. So, I wide scope of criminal offences in which they appear as perpetrators. B92: How is it possible that the processes last for so long, where does it all end then? Goran Ilic, the president of the Association of prosecutors, public prosecutor of the First Municipal court: I would not agree with you that the processes last too long. In order for us to give you the answer if they last long, too long or too short, we would have to compare them to the duration of such processes... B92: Alright, is the duration of the process, for example the criminal offence of extortion, considered long if the main inquest lasts for 6 years? Goran Ilic: Yes. Yes, by all means. B92: And there are many such examples. Goran Ilic: Yes there are, but one should turn back to causes, why do the processes last for so long and the response is, of course, complex. B92: But take for example Velibor Dunjic who is in prison now. The police have filed up to 2009 more than 40 criminal complaints. He has been in custody only since 2009. Therefore, he has had criminal complaints all the time which were sent to the prosecutions, the lawsuits were not ended, he was free, and the last time he was accused, it was for murder. Goran Ilic: You really like to talk abstract. B92: Is this abstract or concrete for you? Goran Ilic: I am not used to talking like a prosecutor, that case, I will answer again, I am not familiarised with that case. I can only speak... B92: Fine, but what are we supposed to... Here, is this enough for you, name, last name, more than 40 criminal complaints? Goran Ilic: Information presented in such a way indicate that the judicial system has not reacted well enough in that case. However, this is just one hypothesis; things can be viewed from a different point of view. B92: From what point of view are you looking at things, if... Goran Ilic: Let us just say that the complaints were filed without sufficient evidence. B92: Then how is it possible that the Prosecution raises indictments, if they do not have sufficient evidence? Goran Ilic: Because each phase of the criminal process exacts a certain level, i.e. degree of reasonable doubt, but for the verdict you need complete certainty. B92: I think that the fact that someone has 40 criminal complaints is good enough, and that he is not in custody but the state and the society are setting him free to commit more criminal offences – now is that what it’s about? Goran Ilic: Well, hypothetically, I can agree with you in the sense that it raises doubt in the inappropriate work of the state institutions. Gordana Jekic-Bradajic, deputy District attorney in Belgrade: All criminal offences they committed, discovered by the police and raised criminal complaints were processed in a way by the Prosecution. There is a halt in the Court at that moment because there are many witnesses that need hearing. Of course they will call upon their right to defend in a way they think it suites them best, hire a great number of lawyers, propose a great number of witnesses which the court is obliged to hear, because they might state in the complaint later that they were denied of having a fair defense. Sinisa Vazic, president of the District court in Belgrade: But it would be wrong for others to think that the police, the prosecution and the court are guilty for everything. We are not the only ones involved. There is also something called family, something called society, whatever that means, all other sorts, the environment, school, other forms, so to speak of organising, and if we are talking about violence on sport fields, and those sport clubs which are kept by side in this whole story they are giving some ambiguous statements by which they are trying to explain something, or not explain something. What I am trying to say is that it would not be good to make only the police, prosecution or the court fight against crime and decrease the crime rate. Miodrag Majic, president of the First Municipal court: If the court and the state institutions perform their jobs irresponsibly, they indirectly stimulate the perpetrators, so to speak, to commit offences, because they see it as something which is indirectly justified by the state, you see. However, I would not like, one least bit, to divert the responsibility from the courts, that we are just one tiny part in the system which comes, unfortunately, in the end, when most of it is lost; it is often expected that by using some highly repressive measures to cleanse the society from those negative effects. I am telling you, I would love it if you could make things happen like that, but you can’t. Sinisa Vazic, president of the District court in Belgrade: as far as penalties are concerned, all rendered verdicts, the public surely knows that the purpose of rendering verdicts is actually a triple one. On one hand, to achieve the so-called special prevention and to hinder a perpetrator of a criminal offence in committing them again, i.e. to rehabilitate them in a way, to stop others, to send them a message and this is something you have now brought up through this question, what is the message we are sending. So, we are doing this to stop or influence others not to do something, because the exact same penalty will strike them as well. Gordana Jekic-Bradajic, deputy District prosecutor in Belgrade: there are condemning verdicts, but also release verdicts which were cancelled according to the appeals, so the trial was repeated or still in progress. I am speaking for the 2006 – 2009 period. That is the period which I checked and there are still no preclusions. B92: So what kind of message are you sending by this statistics? Gordana Jekic-Bradajic: How did you understand it? B92: Well, I am interested in your opinion as a prosecutor. Gordana Jekic-Bradajic: My opinion as a prosecutor is a prosecutor type of opinion, which means that there was enough space to reach final verdicts. Rendering sentences is the crown of all the battles against organised crime, and that is in fact the only visible thing, the only thing that leaves some trace, to show that there is no place for crime in Serbia today and that by a true penalty one can show that law breaking will not be tolerated and that will be the solution from this time on. Miodrag Majic, president of the First municipal court: I really doubt that some politicians, authorities or whoever, calls judges in any court. Maybe it happens someplace else... What is more dangerous – how to protect the one who will decide about you and me from about what will happen to them, from the self initiative thinking about what will happen to them in the world of the mighty if they bring this or that verdict. There is no need for anyone to call them and pressure them, they can be frightened without all that. Someone will say: what do I care, the judge has to... It is layman talk, but he is the one to make decisions, and I wouldn’t like a scared man to decide about me. Goran Ilic, president of the Association of prosecutors, public prosecutor of the First municipal court: It is my opinion that there should exist a complete state consensus about the issue of suppressing violence and I also think that you cannot suppress violence just by means of criminal suppression. The republican prosecutor, Slobodan Radovanovic, who has filed an initiative to the Constitutional court for banning certain fan groups refused to talk to “Insider”. That the institutions in charge are familiarised with the case can best be seen from the content of the banning initiative which, among other things, states: The initiative of the Republican prosecution for banning fan subgroups. “Essentially, it is about criminal groups, who only use sports as a cause for violence. Those aren’t fans at all, in means of respecting and loving sports, but are group organised violators and wreckers. Precisely because of the mask they wear, using the population frailty towards sports, they have become “private armies” serving numerous purposes, all the way to murders in public places, gaining profit doing illegal business, violently hindering the privatisation of clubs, which would leave many hustlers without significant financial assets, out of control of state mechanisms” ”These groups, became the rulers of public space on Saturdays or Sundays, judges and executioners of the verdict about who can publicly manifest their sympathy towards the opposing party, the state or towards the people, by beating up each other and other citizens and foreigners, stabbing each other with knives, trampling everything in front of themselves and destroying other people’s property and always in groups, and following the principles of a wolf pack seeking victims of their mindless passions of hate and intolerance”. Sinisa Vazic, president of the District court in Belgrade: the question that remains is what will happen after the ban, if it happens at all. Will it be good, is that the step in the right direction or not? For the time being, we are just bystanders. Actually, I feel like a moderate pessimist concerning this. Goran Ilic, president of the Association of prosecutors, public prosecutor of the First municipal court: A huge number of fans are not violators. Therefore, one should make a difference between violators, hooligans and bandits from fans. Ever since there is sport, there are fan groups and we should only put their behaviour in reasonable frameworks. B92: And how do you account for the initiative of the republic prosecutor for banning those groups? Goran Ilic: I did not understand that he wanted for them to be banned, all I understood was that he wanted to ban the groups that are aggressive, which are a part of fan groups. And if he did want to ban fan groups, I would not agree with him. As you could have seen in numerous examples in this episode, the judicial system and the official institutions by not doing their job have allowed the extremist groups to become a real army of criminals and bandits against which no one can stand up to. Examples for this are several dozens of citizens of Belgrade which stood and peacefully observed how a group of hooligans beats up a French citizen in broad daylight. Everyone left after that. No one approached to save the man who was simply being murdered in front of several witnesses. The attackers went to the stadium after that to watch the game, they were arrested the very same night which only proves that one can quickly determine who did what. Gordana Jekic-Bradajic, deputy District prosecutor in Belgrade: We have really undergone a serious frontal fight with all legal, legitimate means to put an end to it. To cleanse Serbia once and for all from violence and to show the violators that this is not just their country, that this is the country of all of us and that it is not just them with human rights, but all of us who make up the great majority. The leaders of fan groups refused to talk for “Insider” explaining that there is a war going on against them. When saying that they are brave only when they are in a group, when they have knives, guns and baseball bats but not when it comes to answering questions, Partizan fans said, again in groups, even 2 weeks prior to the broadcasting of “Insider” the following: - A message to Brankica and the courts, they can only suck our c****!!! - Knife, barb wire – Srebrenica - Kill, slaughter, annihilate the Shiptar! However, a question arises why did the state institutions allow the extremists, that call themselves football fans, to become so powerful that no one can say anything about them, starting from the media, via managements of the clubs, all the way to the politicians, for years now. By means of insufficient and inadequate reactions of the judicial system, the state has practically legalised violence.

(Im)potent state? (part one)

With hoods over their heads, and covered faces, allegedly all in the name of patriotism, nationalism, fight for the Serbian issue and love towards sport, those who call themselves football fans turn into an army of bandits, often for the sake of different individuals. Not only are they demolishing the city and beating out everyone who gets in their way in the last years, but often pleading patriotism serves as a cover for various criminal offences. Against individuals and fan groups of football clubs of Red Star, Partizan and Rad, more than one hundred criminal complaints have been filed for criminal offences such as extortion, kidnapping, heavy theft, violent behaviour, selling narcotic drugs, inflicting severe body injuries and even attempted murder or murder in the past several years, according to the research done by “Insider”. However, these criminal complaints have not yet been processed by the ministry of the police until the end, or were dismissed by the Prosecution or the Prosecution filed indictments, but the lawsuits last for years. The result is that there are no final verdicts to these heavy criminal offences.

Thanks to such a system, those who were accused of committing criminal offences mostly remained free and continued to commit new and more severe criminal offences. Finally, when the Partizan fans beat the French citizen Bruce Taton in September 2009, who eventually died due to the injuries suffered, everybody was shocked, from the president of the state, all the way to the media.

However, a question arises why did the state institutions allow the extremists that call themselves football fans, to become so powerful that no one can say anything about them, starting from the media, via managements of the clubs, all the way to the politicians, for years now. By means of insufficient and inadequate reactions of the judicial system, the state has practically legalised violence.

- Kill, slaughter, annihilate the Shiptar! Politicians have often justified the acts of the perpetrators, while club managements have almost never clearly condemned the acts of those fans, and those alike. Apart from this, honourable chairs are reserved for politicians, judges, financial police and public figures in club managements. At the same time, stadiums are an ideal place for starting various subjects, beginning from the change in the management board of clubs and the change of government, but also for calls for lynching. Therefore, no one wants, or no one can confront them.

The one thing in common for the fan leaders of Red Star, Partizan and Rad is no love towards the favourite club or cheering, but numerous criminal offences for which they were accused of in the previous years. Bearing in mind that there are more than one hundred criminal offences they are accused of, in this show you will only see a part of what they are accused. One of the best examples of the responsibility of the judicial system for what is going on when it comes to violators, i.e. individuals from cheering groups, is the example of Đorđe Prelić, one of the leaders of the Partizan cheer group. Today, he is at large for being accused of organising the murder of Bruce Taton. Up until then, several criminal complaints were filed against him for different criminal offences, but despite all this, he was a free citizen. Đorđe Prelić was born in 1985, and is one of the leaders of the Partizan fan group “Alkatraz”. According to the information we obtained according to the Law on Information Availability, in the past several years more than 20 criminal complaints have been filed against Đorđe Prelić for different criminal offences. Up to this day, according to the largest number of these complaints, there are no final verdicts. When he fled the country after the murder of Bruce Taton, the Minister of police, Ivica Dačić has informed the public that he is one of the more known drug-dealers. The question is then, how is it possible that he was a free man at all. According to the research done by “Insider”, Đorđe Prelić was accused of selling narcotic drugs in 2003 even, but for such an offence he was sentenced to 6 months of prison after the verdict made by the District court.

In the past several years, the police have filed several criminal complaints against Đorđe Prelić accusing him for: violent behaviour, unauthorised possession, making, exchanging and distributing arms and munitions, unauthorised production and distribution of narcotic drugs, criminal offence of heavy theft.

However, only one lawsuit was ended by a sentencing verdict for 6 months of prison. According to all other complaints, either the prosecutions dropped the charges, or raised the charges, but the lawsuits are in process for years. Eventually it came to be that he was accused of organising the murder in September 2009. Đorđe Prelić is at large today. Aleksandar Vavić is one of the leaders of the Partizan fan group “Alkatraz”. He was born in 1986. Vavić was one of the group leaders of Red Star, and today he is one of the group leaders of Partizan. According to the information by “Insider”, the police have filed 12 criminal complaints for different criminal offences in the past several years. There are no final verdicts up to this day.

One of the criminal complaints against Vavić was filed in January 2005 when he was brought into custody under the suspicion of inflicting severe injuries to Stefan Gajić and Darko Kurić by knife. However, his detention was cancelled after consultations with the Fifth Municipal court judge, Nebojsa Bojić. The charge was submitted to the District court in a regular way. The official response to the TV show “Insider” stated that the District court has cancelled the process.

Since the process was cancelled, only a couple of months later, in 2005, Vavić was also accused of participating in a fight in which he attacked Igor Bosnić and Obrad Obradović along with 3 more people while returning from a basketball match Partizan – Cibona. As stated in the complaint, Obradović received a stab wound in the right heart ventricle and Bosnić received a stab wound in the stomach, suffering liver damage on the same occasion. The Third prosecution filed a charge in 2005 even based upon the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police and the inquiry conducted, but the lawsuit has not yet been brought to an end. “Insider” got a response from the Third prosecution which stated that the Council president of the Third Municipal court, Marija Sekulić scheduled 14 main inquests since 2005, but none was held due to, as stated in the official response, the absence of the plaintive. It is unknown whether the reason for the absence of the plaintive is fear or threat or something else, but the question is will the prosecution make some action or will the inquests be cancelled until the statute of limitations.

According to the research made by “Insider”, there have been several criminal complaints filed against Aleksandar Vavić for criminal offences such as: violent behaviour, unauthorised possession of arms, inflicting severe body injuries, burglary and theft. Almost no lawsuit was ended. There have been no final verdicts so far. Majk Halkijević, born in 1975, was one of the group leaders of Partizan. Halkijević was sentenced 4 times for charges such as heavy theft, unauthorised possession of arms and causing general threat. He was on trial for causing general threat for firing a rocket on the stadium of Partizan in ’99 which killed Aleksandar Radović. Nikola Dedović – Džoni was also on the indictment, the current group leader of the “Alkatraz” group, but the prosecutor resigned from prosecuting him. However, that offence was not qualified in the indictment as murder, but as causing general threat, so he was sentenced to 1 year and 11 months of prison according to the verdict of the second Municipal court, the court council which was presided by Judge Nataša Albijanić. Alen Kostić – “Kubi” is one of the group leaders of the “South Family” group. He was born in 1986 and 14 criminal complaints were filed against him by 2006 for heavy criminal offences. He was accused of inflicting severe body injuries even in 2004. Namely, he came to an improvised basketball court in Čukarička padina with a group of about 20 people, most of them wearing Partizan symbols; they had metal bars in their hands, baseball bats, wooden bars, glass bottles and knives. About a dozen people were playing basketball or were sitting on nearby benches. There were minors among them. They attacked the people present without any cause. Alen Kostić had a knife in his hand and attacked a minor F. D. who had his pleura pierced. M. D. was stabbed in the area of his right thorax. N. G. was stabbed in the neck and L. L. was cut in his right upper arm. The group of assaulters fled after that. The majority of the injured had severe body injuries, which were life threatening.

In 5 years, 14 criminal complaints were filed against Alen Kostić for criminal offences such as violent behaviour, burglary, theft, inflicting severe body injuries. Branislav Penčić was only one year prior to this accused of selling drugs. Namely, as stated in another indictment, police officers of the police office in Obrenovac were informed that the accused Penčić has for some time been involved in drug sales in the territory of Obrenovac, and that he obtained drugs from John Does in Belgrade.

One verdict was reached after all that when he was sentenced to prison for 10 months, but that verdict was cancelled as well. Namely, Penčić was indicted on January 24, 2007 for a criminal offence of preventing official personnel in conducting their duties. The Municipal court ruled in April finding Penčić guilty and sentencing him to 10 months in prison.

Ruling according to the appeal of the defendant, the District court in Belgrade cancelled the first instance verdict and returned the subject to a new trial. The procedure is still in progress.

According to a research made by the “Insider”, several criminal complaints were filed against Branislav Penčić until 2008, such as: violent behaviour, unauthorised production, possession and distribution of narcotic drugs, kidnapping, assault on an official, theft. These are only some of the criminal offences for which the individuals from the fan groups of Partizan were accused. Criminal complaints, for different criminal offences were filed against other individuals from the football club Partizan’s fan groups in the previous years, but neither according to those complaints, nor according to the research made by the “Insider” are there final verdicts. One of the examples is the criminal complaint which was filed against two group leaders of Partizan football club after the broadcast of a documentary about the hooligans on the Discovery Channel. Namely, Partizan fans waved their guns in front of the camera and showed some drugs in 2007.

“The real football factories” TV show clip.

- Grobari meet each month for a party. You can find food, drinks, drugs and karaoke there…But not everything is fun, because this group is armed and dangerous!

- When we have guns, we fight with guns. When we don’t have guns, we fight without guns.

A criminal complaint was filed against Robert Poljak and Siniša Pantović in April 2008 to the Second prosecution, who were shown on the clip holding guns. “Insider” received an official response from the Second prosecution saying that the process for that criminal offence is still in progress.

The responsibility of state institutions, i.e. the judicial system is obvious when it comes to one of the Partizan group leaders, Đorđe Prelić. There is one striking justified question; would he have been at large today, and would he have been accused of organising the murder of Bruce Taton, if all complaints filed against him in the previous several years were processed until the end. The case is the same with individuals from the fan groups of the football club Red Star. E.g. Velibor Dunjić, one of the leaders of Red Star fans was arrested only recently according to an indictment which states that he was involved in murder. For years, plenty of criminal complaints were filed against him for severe criminal offences, but almost none of them were processed until the end, so it was possible in the end for him to be convicted for attempted murder.

Velibor Dunjić – “Velja” is 24 and is one of the leaders of the Red Star group “Belgrade Boys”. His imperious conduct which was often unsanctioned was explained by many by the fact that his father is a retired officer of the police, and that Dunjić himself often threatened the policemen by mentioning the name of his father. According to the research done by “Insider”, 19 criminal complaints were filed against Dunjić since 2008 which state that he has committed at least 31 criminal offences. Dunjić was a free man so he was accused of attempted murder in April 2008. Uroš Avramović, one of the leaders of the Red Star fans was also reported along with Dunjić. In April 2008 they were accused of committing several criminal offences together with several John Does at Ada Ciganlija in the restaurant “Kalipso”. As stated in the report, they physically assaulted Andrija Čorugić after a verbal dispute who was sitting on the raft. They kicked him, hit him with their hands and bottles which were on the table, which caused a skull fracture in Čorugić. After that, they fired several gunshots at Čorugić hitting him in the left forearm and right elbow and left the raft. Dunjić and Avramović were at large in the time of submitting the charge to the District prosecution.

Dunjić was arrested in Sweden on November 20, 2008 according to the wanted list of the Serbian branch of Interpol which was issued for attempted murder. The head of Delije was marked by the police as one of the leaders of the new Zemun clan which had 34kg of marijuana confiscated. Uroš Avramović was arrested in June 2009 in Frankfurt.

Although there are several criminal complaints for severe criminal offences, there are no final verdicts against him to this day according to the official responses we received.

Velibor Dunjić was known to the police for years back for his violent behaviour. He addressed the police officers in December 2006 after an attempt to look at his ID in the following words: (as stated in the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police)

- Who are you asking an ID from, you Indian? I’m gonna kill you. I’m the sole ruler, you motherfuckers!

A criminal complaint was filed against him for the criminal offence of preventing an official in performing their duties in December 2006. The First prosecution filed the indictment the very same year. Two years later, the First Municipal court reached a verdict in which they sentenced Dunjić to 4 years probation or 10 months in prison. The First prosecution filed a complaint against the verdict. In December 2003 Dunjić was accused of causing general threat after a shooting and wounding a young man at the bus station. He was in custody, but the prosecutor Gordana Mijailović decided to cancel his detention and decided that the criminal complaint should be filed in a regular manner. The Fourth prosecution filed the indictment but the main inquest is still in progress, i.e. for full 6 years in the council of judge Dušan Milenković As stated in the second criminal complaint, in July 2006 he threw around and kept breaking the inventory in a café in Novi Beograd and harassed the worker, and at one point, he even slapped her on the cheek. When the owner got to the café and tried to protect the worker, Dunjić assaulted him as well by hitting him with an ashtray in the head and then leaving. A police pursuit was issued against him. A couple of days later, Dunjić addressed them in the following words when the policemen asked him for his ID (as stated in the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police):

- Who do you think you are, you motherfuckers, I’m gonna fucking kill all of you... Who do you think you are to turn me in, I remembered the faces of all of you, you motherfuckers...!

In the course of the arrest, he even hit a policeman. Dunjić was taken into hearing after the consultations with the prosecutor Tatjana Sekulić, and according to her instructions, a criminal complaint was filed in a regular manner. He was 13 days into custody, when the Fourth court council ruled for the cancellation of his custody. An indictment was filed and the main inquest is in progress for 3 years now. On August 2, 2007, according to some statements from another criminal complaint, Dunjić showed up with Denis Mekić and Marko Ljubičić at the club “Brodarac” at the old fair. After coming for several times and harassing the employees, security workers did not want to open the doors for them which caused the group, lead by Dunjić, to throw bricks at the club but also to fire gunshots. The whole incident was filmed with restaurant surveillance cameras. The complaint for this criminal offence was submitted to the Fourth prosecution which issued a claim for conducting an investigation. Despite the existence of the video, the investigation lasts for 4 years now. The investigative judge is Ružica Živanović.

Velibor Dunjić was free until an attempted murder when a wanted list was issued after him according to which he was arrested in 2008. According to the research made by “Insider”, he was accused of several severe criminal offences: assault on an official while performing their duties and violent behaviour at sport manifestations as well as distracting an official in performing duties regarding security, participation in fights and shootouts, unauthorised production and distribution of narcotic drugs and for several heavy thefts. Uroš Avramović is one of the leaders of the Red Star fans. Up to this day 15 criminal complaints were filed against him. According to the research of “Insider”, there are no final verdicts. He was arrested on June 18, 2009 in Frankfurt because he was eventually accused of attempted murder.

In April 2005, a criminal complaint was filed against Avramović for production, possession and distribution of narcotic drugs to the District court in Belgrade. As stated in the charge, Avramović was buying drugs from John Does in the period from April 2004 – April 2005; heroin, in quantities of 100gr for 17 euro, and then he took the drugs to his apartment where he packed it in smaller packets of 5-20gr and sold it to the Belgrade drug users for a price of 20 euro per gram. The District court, in response to “Insider” stated that the process against Avramović is still in progress since the first instance rule was cancelled.

Avramović first participated in the fight with several John Does in front of the club “Star” around 5am when the police tried to get involved. On that occasion Avramović was shouting the following words (as stated in the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police):

- Who the hell are you?! Who are you?! My sweatshirt is more expensive then the whole Ministry of Police!

He spat a policeman on that occasion in the face. When Avramović got arrested, Velibor Dunjić, who also participated in the fight, approached the policemen and said (as stated in the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police):

- What do you want? My dad is your colleague, you pussies. Why are you taking in my friends? According to another criminal complaint, Uroš Avramović came to club “Plasnik” on May 12, 2007 with a group of friend, fans of which he is the leader, and immediately after entering, he started riots and fights. A security guard was hit in the head with a bottle and after that, Avramović pointed a gun at him, for which he did not have a licence. He was interrogated in the presence of the lawyer Mirko Đorđević. The investigative prosecutor in charge was Irena Bjelos. On June 1 at 5am, he was sentenced a 48-hour detention which was cancelled the very next day at 13.15h for unknown reasons. The complaint was submitted to the First prosecution. The reply to the “Insider” stated that the indictment was raised in December 2008, but no inquest has been scheduled up to this day in the First Municipal court. The prosecution has allegedly urged the court to schedule the main inquest.

On December 10, 2006, Avramović came to the Ambulance to get informed about the injuries his friend Velibor Dunjić suffered. Dunjić was taken to the Ambulance by the police after a fight in the Belgrade club “Underground”.

When he saw the policemen, Avramović started insulting them and started behaving in an uncontrollable manner and was slamming the doors of the Ambulance. When the policemen tried to take him out of the Ambulance, Avramović jumped at one of them and bit him above the left ear, and then bit another policeman by the leg and them hit him with the head in the thorax which caused a fraction of the sternum. This criminal complaint was dismissed according to the official response from the Second prosecution. According to the research made by the “Insider”, several criminal complaints were filed against Uroš Avramović for severe criminal offences such as: violent behaviour, burglary, unauthorised possession of arms. There are no final verdicts for the majority of these complaints up to this day. Dražen Dragaš – “Draža”, or “Lurch” is one of the leaders of the Red Star fans and he is 26 years old. He was arrested recently because a gun was found in his possession for which he did not have a licence. The prosecutor asked the First instance court to determine custody not only because of the influence on the witnesses, but also because of the danger that he might repeat the crime again, because Dragaš had multiple accusations. However, according to our information, the First instance court dismissed the request of the Prosecution. The same reply came from the District court. The council president was the District judge, Nadežda Mijatović.

According to the research made by the “Insider”, the police have filed more than 15 criminal complaints against Dražen Dragaš since 2003. However, there are no final verdicts up to this day. Dragaš was accused of unauthorised production, distribution and possession of narcotic drugs. The police have arrested a group of young people, among which was Dragaš, while buying and selling marijuana. This group had with them 41 packets of marijuana, weighing a total of 214.64gr. When he was taken in, he threatened the policeman multiple times (as stated in the criminal complaint of the Ministry of Police):

- When I get out, I’m gonna fuck you, you motherfucking cop.

The complaint for the unauthorised possession and distribution of narcotic drugs was submitted to the District prosecution in Belgrade which raised the indictment. However, according to the information obtained by “Insider”, a release verdict was reached in the lawsuit. The judge that ruled the verdict with the excuse that there is no sufficient evidence was Života Đoinčević, who was arrested in the operation “Sablja”, and afterwards was acquitted. The prosecution appealed for the release verdict. The criminal complaint was filed against Dragaš in 2007 for the criminal offence of burglary. As stated in the response to “Insider” the process was cancelled after the investigation. Dražen Dragaš is a member of the Assembly of the Football club “Red Star”. Multiple criminal complaints were filed against him for severe criminal offences: drug selling, violent behaviour, burglary. However, there are no final verdicts up to this day. Vučković Marko, called “Mare” and “The Commandant” is 32 and is the leader of the “Red Star” group “Ultras Boys”. According to the research by “Insider”, 8 criminal complaints were filed against Marko Vučković since ’95 to this day, and he is guilty of 11 criminal offences. There are no final verdicts. His father, Ratko Vučković, Assembly member of the Football club of Red Star recently testified as the defense witness at the trial for a Red Star fan, Uroš Mitić. He said that he did not see Mišić attack the member of the Gendarmerie Nebojša Trajković with a torch. One of the members of the Assembly of Red Star is (his son) Marko Vučković. The last in a row of criminal complaints against Marko Vučković is the one where he is suspected of inflicting severe body injuries. As stated in the complaint, he was approached by Sava Milićević in October 2008 in the urban centre of Senjak, a woman who lives nearby and told him not to sell drugs anymore, or she would call the police. Vučković assaulted Sava and by hitting her with his hands and feet, inflicted severe body injuries, and then moved away. The police have filed a report against him. The Second prosecution raised the indictment, but the process in the Second court is still in progress.

A charge was filed against him in 2005 because he was preventing an authorised official from performing their security duties, because he assaulted a policeman who had been in the “spider” vehicle belonging to the Parking Service. The Second prosecution has raised an indictment, but the process in the Second court is still in progress for that criminal offence since 2005. In 2004, a charge was filed for the case of a heavy burglary and inflicting light body injuries. The District prosecution states for “Insider” that the process was dismissed according to this criminal complaint.

These are only some of the criminal complaints which were filed against some individuals from the Red Star fan groups in the past few years. Complaints for several criminal offences were filed against other individuals from the Red Star fan groups. Preclusions do not exist even up to this day. The situation is the same with the individuals from the Rad fan groups “United Forces”. There are several complaints filed against them for causing religious and national hatred. Fans of Rad are known for their songs such as “Knife, Barb Wire, Srebrenica” and “Kill, Slaughter. Annihilate the Shiptar”.

They present themselves as patriots and declare everyone else who do not think the same as they do, traitors. However, the police have filed dozens of criminal complaints against the leaders of Rad fan groups, among other things, for distributing narcotic drugs:

Duško Vujičić – criminal complaint for possession and distribution of narcotic drugs;

Dejan Majstorović – criminal complaint for inflicting light body injuries;

Marko Gušić – 2 criminal complaints for causing national, religious and racial hatred and participating in a fight;

Dragan Šupurović – 8 criminal complaints for unauthorised production, distribution of narcotic drugs, causing national, religious and racial hatred, hiding, endangering public traffic, criminal offence of murder and inflicting light body injuries;

Vladimir Kovačević – 4 criminal complaints for assaulting an official, causing general threat, participating in a fight and heavy theft;

Nikola Vidović – 8 criminal complaints, for burglary, causing national, religious and racial hatred, severe body injuries;

Srđan Rajković – 5 criminal complaints, causing national, religious and racial hatred, for burglary, endangering public traffic and endangering safety.;

The situation is the same with all these criminal complaints as it is in the cases of Red Star and Partizan. Court processes last for years, and there are mostly no final verdicts. You will not be able to hear responses of the accuses or their lawyers who represent them regarding the suspicions that the processes are stalled until the statute of limitation because the fans would go to the houses of the judges, witnesses or the plaintive, so fear may be the reason why they retreat, or to their best for the process to go into statute of limitation. All the lawyers refused to speak for “Insider”, i.e. refused to answer many questions. For example, lawyers who represent the fans of Red Star are Maja Trkulja and Jugoslav Tintor. Both of them refused to speak for “Insider” saying that “The police have too much influence upon you, and your show is a predictor of what will happen”.

After being asked what had happened after the serial “Official misuse” regarding corruption in the institutions in charge, Jugoslav Tintor persistently repeated that he did not like the concept of the show. He, as well as everybody else, was offered to look at the show prior to the broadcast so that they may be assured that their responses were not edited and taken out of context. However, such conditions were not suitable either. A serious fight against extremists and hooligans which was announced by the representatives of the state after the murder of Bruce Taton, has come down to the fact that the republic prosecutor has filed an initiative for banning fan groups and subgroups of Red Star, Partizan and Rad, and also the right-hand organisations.

However, all fan groups have their leaders, against whom dozens of criminal complaints have been filed in the previous years, according to the research made by “Insider”, for severe criminal offences. The processes are mostly still in progress. An issue raised here questions the ban against fan groups instead of processing lawsuits against individuals from those fan groups till the end. Slobodan Vukolić, chief of Police for the city of Belgrade: I can tell you that the perpetrators of just 3 football clubs have committed 289 criminal offences up to this day, which have nothing to do violence on sport manifestations. There is murder, unauthorised possession and trade, distribution of narcotic drugs, extortion, causing racial, religious, national hatred, violent behaviour, unauthorised possession of arms and munitions. So, I wide scope of criminal offences in which they appear as perpetrators. B92: How is it possible that the processes last for so long, where does it all end then?

Goran Ilić, the president of the Association of prosecutors, public prosecutor of the First Municipal court: I would not agree with you that the processes last too long. In order for us to give you the answer if they last long, too long or too short, we would have to compare them to the duration of such processes...

B92: Alright, is the duration of the process, for example the criminal offence of extortion, considered long if the main inquest lasts for 6 years?

Goran Ilić: Yes. Yes, by all means.

B92: And there are many such examples.

Goran Ilić: Yes there are, but one should turn back to causes, why do the processes last for so long and the response is, of course, complex.

B92: But take for example Velibor Dunjić who is in prison now. The police have filed up to 2009 more than 40 criminal complaints. He has been in custody only since 2009. Therefore, he has had criminal complaints all the time which were sent to the prosecutions, the lawsuits were not ended, he was free, and the last time he was accused, it was for murder.

Goran Ilić: You really like to talk abstract.

B92: Is this abstract or concrete for you?

Goran Ilić: I am not used to talking like a prosecutor, that case, I will answer again, I am not familiarised with that case. I can only speak...

B92: Fine, but what are we supposed to... Here, is this enough for you, name, last name, more than 40 criminal complaints?

Goran Ilić: Information presented in such a way indicate that the judicial system has not reacted well enough in that case. However, this is just one hypothesis; things can be viewed from a different point of view.

B92: From what point of view are you looking at things, if...

Goran Ilić: Let us just say that the complaints were filed without sufficient evidence.

B92: Then how is it possible that the Prosecution raises indictments, if they do not have sufficient evidence?

Goran Ilić: Because each phase of the criminal process exacts a certain level, i.e. degree of reasonable doubt, but for the verdict you need complete certainty.

B92: I think that the fact that someone has 40 criminal complaints is good enough, and that he is not in custody but the state and the society are setting him free to commit more criminal offences – now is that what it’s about?

Goran Ilić: Well, hypothetically, I can agree with you in the sense that it raises doubt in the inappropriate work of the state institutions. Gordana Jekić-Bradajić, deputy District attorney in Belgrade: All criminal offences they committed, discovered by the police and raised criminal complaints were processed in a way by the Prosecution. There is a halt in the Court at that moment because there are many witnesses that need hearing. Of course they will call upon their right to defend in a way they think it suites them best, hire a great number of lawyers, propose a great number of witnesses which the court is obliged to hear, because they might state in the complaint later that they were denied of having a fair defense. Siniša Važić, president of the District court in Belgrade: But it would be wrong for others to think that the police, the prosecution and the court are guilty for everything. We are not the only ones involved. There is also something called family, something called society, whatever that means, all other sorts, the environment, school, other forms, so to speak of organising, and if we are talking about violence on sport fields, and those sport clubs which are kept by side in this whole story they are giving some ambiguous statements by which they are trying to explain something, or not explain something. What I am trying to say is that it would not be good to make only the police, prosecution or the court fight against crime and decrease the crime rate. Miodrag Majić, president of the First Municipal court: If the court and the state institutions perform their jobs irresponsibly, they indirectly stimulate the perpetrators, so to speak, to commit offences, because they see it as something which is indirectly justified by the state, you see. However, I would not like, one least bit, to divert the responsibility from the courts, that we are just one tiny part in the system which comes, unfortunately, in the end, when most of it is lost; it is often expected that by using some highly repressive measures to cleanse the society from those negative effects. I am telling you, I would love it if you could make things happen like that, but you can’t.

Siniša Važić, president of the District court in Belgrade: as far as penalties are concerned, all rendered verdicts, the public surely knows that the purpose of rendering verdicts is actually a triple one. On one hand, to achieve the so-called special prevention and to hinder a perpetrator of a criminal offence in committing them again, i.e. to rehabilitate them in a way, to stop others, to send them a message and this is something you have now brought up through this question, what is the message we are sending. So, we are doing this to stop or influence others not to do something, because the exact same penalty will strike them as well.

Gordana Jekić-Bradajić, deputy District prosecutor in Belgrade: there are condemning verdicts, but also release verdicts which were cancelled according to the appeals, so the trial was repeated or still in progress. I am speaking for the 2006 – 2009 period. That is the period which I checked and there are still no preclusions.

B92: So what kind of message are you sending by this statistics?

Gordana Jekić-Bradajić: How did you understand it?

B92: Well, I am interested in your opinion as a prosecutor.

Gordana Jekić-Bradajić: My opinion as a prosecutor is a prosecutor type of opinion, which means that there was enough space to reach final verdicts. Rendering sentences is the crown of all the battles against organised crime, and that is in fact the only visible thing, the only thing that leaves some trace, to show that there is no place for crime in Serbia today and that by a true penalty one can show that law breaking will not be tolerated and that will be the solution from this time on.

Miodrag Majić, president of the First municipal court: I really doubt that some politicians, authorities or whoever, calls judges in any court. Maybe it happens someplace else... What is more dangerous – how to protect the one who will decide about you and me from about what will happen to them, from the self initiative thinking about what will happen to them in the world of the mighty if they bring this or that verdict. There is no need for anyone to call them and pressure them, they can be frightened without all that. Someone will say: what do I care, the judge has to... It is layman talk, but he is the one to make decisions, and I wouldn’t like a scared man to decide about me.

Goran Ilić, president of the Association of prosecutors, public prosecutor of the First municipal court: It is my opinion that there should exist a complete state consensus about the issue of suppressing violence and I also think that you cannot suppress violence just by means of criminal suppression. The republican prosecutor, Slobodan Radovanović, who has filed an initiative to the Constitutional court for banning certain fan groups refused to talk to “Insider”. That the institutions in charge are familiarised with the case can best be seen from the content of the banning initiative which, among other things, states:

The initiative of the Republican prosecution for banning fan subgroups.

“Essentially, it is about criminal groups, who only use sports as a cause for violence. Those aren’t fans at all, in means of respecting and loving sports, but are group organised violators and wreckers. Precisely because of the mask they wear, using the population frailty towards sports, they have become “private armies” serving numerous purposes, all the way to murders in public places, gaining profit doing illegal business, violently hindering the privatisation of clubs, which would leave many hustlers without significant financial assets, out of control of state mechanisms”

”These groups, became the rulers of public space on Saturdays or Sundays, judges and executioners of the verdict about who can publicly manifest their sympathy towards the opposing party, the state or towards the people, by beating up each other and other citizens and foreigners, stabbing each other with knives, trampling everything in front of themselves and destroying other people’s property and always in groups, and following the principles of a wolf pack seeking victims of their mindless passions of hate and intolerance”.

Siniša Važić, president of the District court in Belgrade: the question that remains is what will happen after the ban, if it happens at all. Will it be good, is that the step in the right direction or not? For the time being, we are just bystanders. Actually, I feel like a moderate pessimist concerning this.

Goran Ilić, president of the Association of prosecutors, public prosecutor of the First municipal court: A huge number of fans are not violators. Therefore, one should make a difference between violators, hooligans and bandits from fans. Ever since there is sport, there are fan groups and we should only put their behaviour in reasonable frameworks.

B92: And how do you account for the initiative of the republic prosecutor for banning those groups?

Goran Ilić: I did not understand that he wanted for them to be banned, all I understood was that he wanted to ban the groups that are aggressive, which are a part of fan groups. And if he did want to ban fan groups, I would not agree with him.

As you could have seen in numerous examples in this episode, the judicial system and the official institutions by not doing their job have allowed the extremist groups to become a real army of criminals and bandits against which no one can stand up to. Examples for this are several dozens of citizens of Belgrade which stood and peacefully observed how a group of hooligans beats up a French citizen in broad daylight. Everyone left after that. No one approached to save the man who was simply being murdered in front of several witnesses. The attackers went to the stadium after that to watch the game, they were arrested the very same night which only proves that one can quickly determine who did what.

Gordana Jekić-Bradajić, deputy District prosecutor in Belgrade: We have really undergone a serious frontal fight with all legal, legitimate means to put an end to it. To cleanse Serbia once and for all from violence and to show the violators that this is not just their country, that this is the country of all of us and that it is not just them with human rights, but all of us who make up the great majority.

The leaders of fan groups refused to talk for “Insider” explaining that there is a war going on against them. When saying that they are brave only when they are in a group, when they have knives, guns and baseball bats but not when it comes to answering questions, Partizan fans said, again in groups, even 2 weeks prior to the broadcasting of “Insider” the following:

- A message to Brankica and the courts, they can only suck our c****!!!

- Knife, barb wire – Srebrenica

- Kill, slaughter, annihilate the Shiptar!