A law office in Belgrade has said Serbia's high-ranked police officer reported a plan for the murder of inspectors who discovered the Jovanjica marijuana plantation in the north of the country, said to be the largest in Europe.
The Tomanovic Law Office said the head of the Belgrade Police Anti-Drug Department submitted the report on death threats against Slobodan Milenkovic and Dusan Mitic, the inspectors who led the police search of the farm where they found over four tonnes of marijuana and arrested the owner Predrag Koluvija in November 2019.
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„Interior Ministry (MUP) inspectors expect the state bodies, and especially their colleagues, to take all necessary measures not only to protect Milenkovic and Mitic but also to gather the necessary information,“ a statement said.
It added that many police officers volunteered to protect their colleagues.
Lawyer Zdravko Tomanovic told N1 the information on threats was being checked.
Milenkovic and Mitic came to the spotlight after Koluvija gave an interview following his release from prison. He is awaiting trial on two indictments under house arrest with an electronic ankle tag.
Koluvija alleged that an inspector asked him to sign a confession saying he worked for Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic’s brother Andrej Vucic and a controversial businessman from Kosovo Zvonko Veselinovic, but, he said then, he had refused.
He gave a TV interview to his chief defence lawyer is Vladimir Djukanovic, a high-ranked official of Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and the head of Parliamentary judicial commissions reiterating the allegation about being asked to sign a false confession.
After the interview, MUP Internal Control Department said last week it would question three high-ranking police officers.
The three included Police Commissioner Vladimir Rebic and his inspectors Milenkovic and Mitic. Rebic was called for the testing after he stood by his men after two lie detector tests they took proved they were telling the truth.
The inspectors refused the third polygraph test. In the meantime, the pro-regime media launched a smear campaign against them, charging they were collaborators of criminal organisations.
In the meantime, Milenkovic was moved to another job.
Tomanovic, whose law office provides legal assistance to Milenkovic and Mitic, told N1 that „when, as a result of the campaign, you are encouraged to declare department heads and anti-drug fighters on the tabloids’ front pages as some criminal clans’ collaborators, you are drawing a target on them.“
Milenkovic and Mitic have not commented on the media and some ruling coalition officials’ attacks. MUP said they continued to work on the Jovanjica case, determined to discover all involved, especially those close to the authorities.
It added their attorneys would address the public „when the time comes.“
