Serbia: Criminal Groups Prepared for Election Unrest

Serbian Lawyer Claims Criminal Groups Are Being Prepared for Election Unrest

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One of Serbia’s best-known lawyers claims that Serbian police are recruiting or putting uniforms on people with links to the criminal underworld.

Speaking on N1 television’s Dan uživo (Day Live) programme, Borivoje Borović said that several of his clients had warned him that criminals were being prepared in a number of towns in Vojvodina to be deployed if mass demonstrations broke out before or after the elections. Borović estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 people could be involved.

Amid continuing Serbia protests, one of the country’s best-known lawyers claims that Serbian police are recruiting or dressing people linked to criminal circles in police-style clothing. Borović added that the Serbian leadership could resort to such a measure if it were not completely certain of victory, even with the help of electoral fraud.

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Given the gravity of the allegation, the presenter immediately asked Borović whether he was reporting information he had received or merely offering speculation. The lawyer answered firmly that he was referring to information he had received.

Borović then claimed that the Serbian leadership had previously been capable of flying around one hundred criminals to Montenegro with the aim of creating chaos, in cooperation with a local criminal group, in order to obstruct the country’s accession to the European Union. Later in the interview, the Serbian lawyer also linked this line of argument to the armed attack in Banjska in northern Kosovo.

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Borović said that he is currently working on a book and that he repeatedly finds himself thinking about how the Serbian Radicals – a movement in which the current Serbian president was once a leading figure – had done a serious disservice to the Serbian people. He argued that during the 1990s they incited Serbs in Croatia against Croats and then abandoned them.

In his view, the radical approach also ended badly in Kosovo, where Serbs were effectively instructed to withdraw from Kosovo’s state institutions, leaving them exposed to the decisions of the authorities there. He argued that Montenegrin Serbs are now being encouraged to provoke clashes in Montenegro.

Borović described this as a dangerous phenomenon. He argued that, following failures in neighbouring countries, Serbian radicals had been left with little alternative but to establish a regime – or impose a dictatorship – in order to retain political power and preserve their access to money.

The host would not let him digress

The presenter did not allow her guest to drift too far from the original issue. She pointed out that he had still not answered the central question concerning his information about criminals allegedly being prepared in Vojvodina. The issue is particularly sensitive because the timing and circumstances of Serbia’s elections remain the subject of intense political debate.

Against the backdrop of continuing Serbia protests, Borović argued that such groups could be deployed not only around elections but whenever the political leadership considered it necessary.

Maja Dragić repeatedly pressed Borović for details

The Serbian lawyer then turned to people with criminal records whom, he alleged, the regime had gathered in Belgrade’s Pionirski Park, where members of various criminal groups had appeared. According to Borović, these groups remain in a state of readiness, waiting for the moment when someone might call them into action.

Borović also raised the question of what role the group led by Veljko Belivuk had played before it was dismantled with Europol assistance. In his view, the group associated with football supporters could have been used not only to impose “order” in stadiums but, if necessary, against demonstrators in the streets.

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The presenter was unwilling to let the original question go and, for the third time, asked whether Borović’s statements about the preparation of criminals were based on information or speculation. She specifically pressed him on his claim that people from the criminal underworld could be used to create chaos.

Borović calmly replied that he was referring to information he had received. He reiterated his statement and added that he found it entirely plausible that “work on this is continuing all the time”. He said that, if necessary – for example, in the event of an election defeat – deploying one or two thousand people would not present a serious obstacle.

The presenter returned to the issue for a fourth time. Borović remarked that this was genuine journalistic persistence, but said he could not identify his sources or provide specific details. He added, however, that he has clients from various criminal groups who had warned him that preparations for training camps were already under way in Vojvodina. In light of previous events, he said, the information “makes sense” to him.

After a fifth and sixth attempt failed to produce further details, the discussion moved on to whether the well-known Serbian lawyer might consider joining the students’ electoral list. Borović ruled this out completely, and the somewhat frustrated presenter eventually brought the interview to a close.

Hungarian original: This article is the English-language version of a report originally published by BALK Magazine in Hungarian. Read the original Hungarian article here.

This English-language version was prepared with the assistance of ChatGPT for translation and language adaptation, and was subsequently reviewed and edited by BALK Magazine.