Owner of the company Delta Holding Miroslav Miskovic he allegedly sued the state for an unjustified arrest in 2012 and demanded 1,2 million euros in damages.
This court proceeding in the High Court in Belgrade is still ongoing, but the proceedings involving the company have been legally terminated Delta Holding previously launched in connection with, as they stated, "illegal bail" posted in 2013 in order to enable Mišković to be released from custody, writes the weekly Radar.
Miskovic case
Mišković was arrested in December 2012 during a major anti-corruption operation led by the then First Deputy Prime Minister and the current President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić.
"Serbia has not won, and no one will be able to win, and neither will Miroslav Mišković," Aleksandar Vučić pompously declared at the time.
During this action, which many today interpret as one of the key factors in the enthronement of Vučić as the first man of the state, Miroslav Mišković was in custody for 223 days, and he was charged with, among other things, abuse in the business of privatized road companies and tax evasion, with which he allegedly damaged the Serbian budget by around 16 million euros.
After posting bail in the amount of 12 million euros, given by the company Delta, Mišković was released in July 2013, and he was legally released in 2022.
It's not the first time
The lawsuit that, according to information from Radar, Mišković initiated due to an unjustified arrest, is not the first in connection with that case that arrived at the address of the Serbian judiciary after the end of the proceedings.
The company Delta Holding is in 2024 filed a lawsuit against the state due to the illegal holding of a guarantee, i.e. a bail of 12 million euros, which was deposited by Delta in 2013, and which was returned only in May 2022.
With that lawsuit, Delta demanded compensation for keeping the company's "live" money in the state's account for a period of nine years, stating that the company could have used that money in business, as well as the payment of default interest due to the length of the period in which the guarantee was kept.
Among other things, Delta demanded compensation for the money it lost due to Mišković's absence from the company during his stay in prison.
"The plaintiff (Delta Holding) is filing this lawsuit for the compensation of the material damage he suffered due to the illegal actions of the authorities of the Republic of Serbia, which began with the unjustified detention of Miroslav Mišković, his long illegal stay in custody, the illegal holding of a deposit - surety and other accompanying acts," it was written in the lawsuit, which Forbes Serbia had access to.
The request for compensation thus grew to almost 12,5 million euros, and as Radar writes, this request was recently rejected, and the procedure was legally terminated.
Hot and cold relations with the current government
Mišković's alleged lawsuit represents another stage in the hot-cold relationship between Mišković and the current government.
The strained relations between Mišković and Vučić, which developed in the years after the arrest, eased slightly in 2020 after the sale of the Sava center to Mišković on favorable terms.
In addition, the state recently granted Mišković a subsidy of 17 million euros for the construction of the Intercontinental Hotel, and also bought his plots in Surčin for the construction of infrastructure for the EXPO 2027 exhibition, as well as for the National Stadium.
