N1:Document confirms policeman awarded for guilty plea in Belgrade Savamala case

Five years ago, on the night of April 24-25, masked men stormed the old Savamala district with the construction machines, tied up a guard, confiscated people's mobile phones and destroyed several premises in the legalisation process at the time.

The police did not react to people's calls to intervene, and the only one who took the blame was duty officer Goran Stamenkovic. He was sentenced to a five-month suspended sentence, which enabled him to keep the job.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic said at the time that only idiots could do that overnight and pointed at the top Belgrade authorities as to the culprits.

The then Mayor Sinisa Mali later became Finance Minister.

More recently, Vucic said he was proud of the demolition of the illegally built objects since they made room for a part of the Belgrade Waterfront residential and commercial project constructed by the UAE Eagle Hills company.

Vucic added if it were up to him, he would personally have done it, but during the day.

The European Parliament (EP) mentioned the Savamala case in its latest report on Serbia, among other affairs, it called on the country's authorities to deal with it properly.

Stamenkovic's sentence ended in October 2018, and the document N1 had access to showed that his building was legalised less than two weeks later.

But, Stamenkovic started to build another object at the same location in the Belgrade Mirjevo suburb, where the previous building had been legalised, and a criminal charge against him was filed last summer.

Earlier this month, he told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN< said he would speak openly after the retainment by the end of the year since he was not allowed while still on the job.