November 1, 2023
The Office of the Prosecutor for Organised Crime has all but ordered investigative journalism portal KRIK to submit the audio recording that formed the basis of this portal’s “bombastic” story on links between the state and criminals.
The recording reveals high ranking police officer Nenad Vučković talking to members of his criminal group and stating, among other things, that they “had the entire police in their hands”.
Despite the audio recording having been published on the KRIK website and thus made available to everyone, the prosecutor used a commanding tone to tell journalists that “it is necessary for you to submit to us the entire audio recording of the conversation to which you are referring”.
At KRIK they have doubts about the motives of the prosecution’s request, which they also see as a form of pressure, given that they had previously provided the prosecutor with requested materials that had already been published in the scope of their investigative articles, but no indictments were subsequently filed. It is interesting to note that, in this latest case, evidence exists suggesting that both the prosecutor’s office and the police knew about links between this senior police officer and criminal groups for many years, but took no action.
