"It's either us or them."
This is how the student Nikolina Sinđelić ended her terrible confession, who told N1 that she and a group of people were intercepted by the Unit for the Security of Persons and Facilities on Thursday night in Kneza Miloša Street and then monstrously mistreated them.
"We went home after the protest, we were going down Nemanjina, where at that time members of the JZO and the police and many masked men came out of the Government garage, rushed out, started beating the people with batons, telescopic batons... They were mostly in civilian clothes, no one in uniform," she says.
When they brought them into the garage, they threw their things on the floor, they had to lie down, they lined them up like criminals, he says, some of them had ties and handcuffs. After a few moments, he also appeared JZO Commander Marko Kričak.
"There was a camera in my bag, which was turned off, but when it was turned on, a red light came on to show that it was empty. Then they called me 'fuck you, you were filming us', they broke my colleagues' phones, they took them from me and went to the van. My phone was cut in half, they took my camera and said I would never see it again," she continues.
"To ask me to stop hitting you"
However, it did not end there. Marko Krichak, the first man of the JZO, started slapping her and banging her head against the wall, the student claims.
"He said that he was going to strip me and rape me in front of everyone, that everyone would see it, I was visibly furious, he said 'you should ask me to stop beating you', and he told the boyfriend that the violence would only follow. I answered him, I didn't want to be silent, he was more and more violent," she said. "We spent three hours in that garage, then they took us to the station in Majke Yevrosime. When they put everyone in the van, they told me to stay outside, I was afraid not to be left alone with Krichko, I begged the police officer, he helped me, I would like to thank him, I really think he saved me. They gave me help, asked if I should go to the doctor, I will probably go for check-ups today, because the pain does not stop."
The faculty defended the student: FPN is looking for those responsible for threats of rape
She further states that they were at Majke Jevrosime's for two hours, and that she stayed 20 or 30 minutes longer than the other colleagues.
"Various policemen were changing, and information about the prosecution was changing, and when I mentioned that I would call a lawyer who is also an MP of the NPS, they totally changed their behavior, they said that there was no need for me to call anyone," says Sinđelić.
Who is Marko Kričak?
The members of the Unit for the Security of Certain Persons and Facilities (JZO) are in the public eye with the strengthening of protests by citizens and students. Where the progressive beaters are, there they are. Their commander Marko Kricak, in his previous life a car sales clerk, is a man trusted by Bata Gašić, as "Vreme" already wrote about.
JZO: How was the unit of commander Marko Kričko formed and what did it turn into?
Until the Serbian Progressive Party came to power, not much was known about the members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs responsible for securing certain persons and facilities in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Neither during the time of Slobodan Milošević, nor later, during the rule of DOS and Vojislav Koštunica, they were not overly exposed. People did their work unnoticed and unobtrusive.
Milosevic was guarded by members of the Sixth Administration of the Department of State Security, and journalists never had any problems with them. The same was true after the DOS came to power with the security of Zoran Đinđić and Koštunica.
When the Security Directorate was officially formed in 2003, it was joined by vetted people, former members of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SAJ) who, as the people say, "expired their shelf life", but still in full condition and combat readiness, hardened professionals.
When the DS-SPS coalition came to power, the socialists took over the police, and Ivica Dačić became the minister. He appoints Zoran Tomašević, a former member of SAJ, as the head of that administration, a man who provided security for various state officials.
Boris Tadić, however, as the president of the country, took members of the special military unit "Cobra" as his security, who protect him even today. Then the rating of professionals from the Security Administration began to fall, so at the personal request of "Cobra" officials, they began guarding various ministers, state secretaries, holders of judicial positions, all with the "mining" of Tadić.
There were also funny situations, when a scooter driver hits a protected person who is exiting the left rear door of the car, which is unacceptable, or when a member of "Cobra" walks the poodle of the daughter of a protected official and carries it in his arms across the pedestrian crossing.
Nebojša Stefanović's changes
The SNS came to power in 2012. In the summer of 2014, Tomašević was dismissed and Milan Glišović, also a seasoned member of the SAJ, was appointed head of the Security Administration. Everything works as before, until in 2016, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Dr. Nebojša Stefanović, took matters into his own hands.
The administration is growing into a special unit for the security of certain persons and objects (JZO), and this means a different organization (in translation, higher salaries and the possibility of accepting people from outside). Stefanović, based on his earlier friendship with a certain Slavko Gak, the city secretary for social affairs or something like that, appoints his brother Milan as the commander of the JZO. Milan, of course, did not come from nowhere, he was a member of SAJ. They say average, but getting to that unit was still not easy.
The fact that he was recommended by Stefanović's chief of staff, Ivan Ristić, certainly contributed to Gak's appointment as commander. Ristić is Stefanović's longtime friend, some say even a schoolmate, he was the last "class" of the training of the Special Operations Unit, a formation of the State Security, after which he was transferred to SAJ, because he had no blemish in his career.
As a member of SAJ, he guarded the American ambassador, and then, after the progressives came to power, he became Stefanović's head of security while he was president of the Assembly. And that's where his career took off. He became the head of the cabinet of the Minister of the Interior and from that position had influence on many decisions, which ultimately cost him his career. He fell together with Stefanović.
Gaku can't be blamed for any "murky" actions, but his colleagues blame him for not preventing some things, which led to the "partisanship" of JZO.
Arrival of Bata Gašić and Marko Kričko
Then Bratislav Gašić came from the position of BIA director to the position of Minister of Internal Affairs and brought his people. Marko Kričko, a former car sales representative at "Porsche Auto" and the son of the former head of the Belgrade police's narcotics department, is appointed as the commander of the JZO. This is Marko Kričko's only connection with the security services since the qualifications.
After that, the JZO grew from some 300 members to 1.300, because "important personalities" like various starlets need to be protected.
In that unit, they begin to employ people with strange biographies and dubious pasts, brought along party lines. This could best be seen in the Serbian Parliament, where old, experienced police personnel from that unit "rolled their eyes" at their new colleagues. They said that "they didn't bring education from home", that they were "arrogant and crude". It has never been seen before that, for example, a press conference of opposition MPs is secured by twenty such characters, ten of them each standing in or in front of the hall where committee meetings are held.
JZO and progressive thugs
Members of the JZO come into the public spotlight with the strengthening of protests by citizens and students, where they have been openly engaged in the last two years. Their problem is that other colleagues, police officers who are doing their job, report them to explain that they have nothing to do with those thugs.
The author of this text was attacked a few years ago, while he was filming the SNS beatings, and everything went well for them without any consequences, without a judicial epilogue, although the case was properly reported to the prosecutor's office. A well-intentioned friend from the MUP then advised me to "fight" it all, because among those SNS thugs were also members of the JZO.
The last documented case of mistreatment and torture of a student, which fortunately was recorded, forced the Prosecutor's Office to speak out and say that it "formed a case". The MUP did not announce it, nor did the Department of Internal Control. Unfortunately for them, the public, thanks to the honorable people from the police, found out their names, as well as the identity of those who kidnapped the student and put him in a car without license plates.
Use of PHE for arrest and harassment
The operational organizer of those "actions" is the assistant commander of the JZO, Colonel Igor Žmirić, formerly a member of the Anti-Terrorist Unit, which has since been disbanded. According to his colleagues, Žmirić agreed to the humiliation of having a major brought in from the side as his colonel commander - Marko Kricak, who in the meantime had advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel. They also claim that the policewoman T. D, who physically abused the student, is Žmirić's "pullenka".
The deputy commander of the JZO, Marko Zafirović, was also seen and filmed arresting protest participants, although that is not his job. Apparently, the top of the MUP was scared, so it sends all available forces to the streets. Various officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs could be seen during the protest - from inspectors for the investigation of war crimes, through those from various lines of the UKP, to, for example, the head of the Belgrade police department for the fight against prostitution.
The author of this article, however, has to praise Zafirović, because he was the only one who identified himself as a policeman, showing not only a badge, but also an official identification with his name, when they prevented the media from filming the intervention of the Gendarmerie on June 28 in Bulevar Kralja Aleksandar. The others pushed and hit. Among them are some retired police officers, hired under a work contract.
JZO, as can be seen, has been acting for years outside the scope of its competence, and referring to some internal regulations according to which, if necessary, they can provide assistance to other organizational units of the MUP or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And that's a wide range that opens the door wide for abuse.
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