MUP has never been so criminalized

Retired policeman Predrag Simonović is not speaking for "Vreme" for the first time. Two years ago, he presented information related to violations of the law in the MUP, that is, to the fate he suffered as a whistleblower. Last year, he published a book about this and many other things from his work in the police. It is even more relevant today.

"The book 'Operativac' saw the light of day after a lot of pains," says Simonović for "Vreme". "It is an autobiographical and documented story that refers to my period of work in the Working Group for elucidating the murders of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija and journalist Milan Pantić. In the book, two stories are intertwined, two struggles, the personal one, for posterity, and the official one. That so-called part of the book follows a multitude of original official documents, completely unknown even to those who work in the service, let alone to the ordinary reader. My opinion is that the book 'Operativac' represents a specific type of alarming the public because it introduces the reader to the real situation in the police and in some of the most elite services - I am primarily referring to SBPOK. Anyone who thinks any of this is not true will quickly change their mind as they read the documents. I wanted the book to be a record of an unfortunate time in the service, a reminder to colleagues who, in learned and acquired helplessness, bow their heads and allow humiliation, repeating like a mantra that it all happens to someone else. My motive was for the truth to find its way and to come out; my motive was that my child should not be ashamed of me and could proudly say whose daughter she is; my motive was also to startle the colleagues I worked with, but, unfortunately, it seems to me that I only discouraged them."

WEATHER: You said that the book was published after a lot of trouble. What is it?

PREDRAG SIMEUNOVIĆ: Considering that I consider myself a professional, before I published the book in order not to harm the country of Serbia, I sent the working version to the MUP, BIA and the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic. The Ministry of Interior, that is, the Secretariat, sent me an answer that they are not competent. Upon inspection of the case, I determined and obtained documents that the Directorate of Police, UKP and the Internal Control Sector declared that I could publish the book. The Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic forwarded the book to the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, which declared that it was not competent. I did not receive any correspondence from the BIA, but I was contacted by a member of the BIA whom I saw a couple of times at the commissions for investigating the murders of journalists. He told me in a personal contact that the book is good for me, but that it would be better without documents, and he gave me three icons - one for my wife, one for me and one for my then five-year-old daughter, calling her by name - for Nadezhda icon White angel. I understood the above as a threat, but I did not give up on publishing the book. After the book was issued, I submitted information to the High Public Prosecutor's Office about the whistleblowing regarding the actions of BIA officials, which had the characteristics of the criminal offense of endangering security. I was given the status of an external whistleblower by the VJT, and the case was forwarded to the First OJT. Very quickly, the First OJT made a decision to dismiss my whistleblowing information which they treated as a criminal complaint without anyone interviewing me. I am grateful to the "Pistaljka" organization, which deals with the protection of whistleblowers, with whose help I drew up an objection to the aforementioned decision. Acting on the complaint, the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office annuls the decision of the First OJT and returns the case for a new trial. The police officers of PS Novi Beograd interviewed both me and the member of the BIA and again rejected my information with the explanation that "it is not forbidden for employees of the state administration to distribute icons".

Acting on the complaint, the VJT confirmed the decision, I no longer have the right to appeal, and it means that it has been established that the BIA did not scare me. It is interesting that according to the complaint I submitted to the Ombudsman for a violation of the principles of good administration, nothing happened for a year and a half, and only in June of this year did the Ombudsman initiate proceedings against the BIA. I'm still waiting for an answer.

You were involved in elucidating the liquidation of your colleague Slavko Ćuruvija. When it comes to this crime, how did you feel then, and what it is like today?

One prosecutor said – every case has its own time. It seemed to me that that time had come and that the group that worked on the Ćuruvi case, together with the prosecutor and colleagues from the BIA, could present it. I still maintain that the case would not have been resolved if the Government Commission had not been formed, which could, in certain situations, inform the public of the results and that this could not have been prevented by individuals from the MUP. Today I am completely depressed about the subjects I have been working on. I have no other word. My personal feeling is that all of us who worked on this subject were let down the drain. From everyone.

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If those accused of this crime are acquitted? What is the message to the citizens??

I declare on my own behalf that I am scared, and taking into account the state's attitude towards us who worked on the case, I am somehow sure that regardless of the guilty verdict of the High Court in Belgrade, in the first and in the repeated proceedings, the Court of Appeal will deliver an acquittal. If I had any dilemma, after the last interview of Veran Matić, the president of the Government Commission for the investigation of murders of journalists, where he says that he received information from a state secretary that it is reliable that the verdict is acquittal, and after learning that the Court of Appeal has made a decision, I have no dilemma that the verdict will be acquittal. What is the message to citizens? The message is: "You should be scared. Because everything changes, Service remains." And the factual situation is as follows. When I retired, the MUP refused to give me the gun I was carrying. That had never happened before. At that time, the minister was Nebojsa Stefanović. When Aleksandar Vulin became the head of the MUP, I spoke to him, and they called me to choose a used gun, I chose, and then they said that it was not possible. They didn't even want to give me a canceled official ID card.

Dragan Kecman, who led the investigation of the Ćuruvi case, received a gun when he retired in October 2022 and submitted a request to be granted a permit to carry a weapon. It's been almost a year and he hasn't received any response. We were released by the state like clay pigeons. I recently had a security check that was marked as confidential. The checks were carried out by the commander of the department, for whom I received information from the Office of the National Security Council that he does not have a certificate for the level of secrecy classified, and he graduated from the Higher Business School, Department of Internal and Foreign Trade. When the head of the police department in the territory where I live, in a conversation that I initiated, told me that we are all police officers, I asked him if he would like an expert in internal and external trade to assess his family's security. I got no answer, but it seemed to me that he would not like it.

You were in the Working Group that also dealt with the case of your colleague Milan Pantić. That murder was never solved. Why?

Many murders - not only that - were not solved because no one was ever to blame due to poorly conducted investigation, contamination and destruction of traces, traces that were stored in inadequate conditions and not suitable for forensic examination, due to measures and actions that should have been carried out immediately after of the committed act, and they did not, and so on. In my opinion, only the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime can shed light on the above-mentioned case. At the suggestion of my superiors, I was removed from the mentioned working group, I hope time will tell why. Imagine our surprise when, for example, after more than 15 years we found out that the phone used by the journalist Pantić at the time of the murder was not artificial, and that of course no one is to blame. Also, I read that this year, on the anniversary of the murder, Veran Matić stated that the killers and motives for the murder of Milan Pantić are known, but that the power of the client is stronger than the system. It's terrifying.

While working in the police, you got the highest marks, you have been awarded multiple times, and you also graduated from prestigious professional academies. Yet, you have survived abuse at work from your superiors. Why did you become a whistleblower?

My wife would say to this question that I was born a whistleblower. Here it is shown that it is true that a man may not know exactly what he wants, but he must know what he will not. I didn't want to be a criminal and act on illegal orders. I personally know most of the MUP members who have been arrested in the last couple of years. They ended up in prison because they unquestioningly carried out all the orders, knowing that some of them were not according to the law. And it always comes at a cost. I graduated from the Higher School of Internal Affairs, the Faculty of Security, Specialist studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences on the subject of terrorism and organized crime, after which I received a master's degree in political science. I have completed the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Hungary and the second part of the academy in Roswell, USA. I also have some FBI certification. At the age of 18, I joined the army and was a member of the 72nd Special Brigade. And then a graduate geographer was appointed as my boss in SBPOK, while UKP at the headquarters of the Ministry was headed by a graduate geographer - tourismologist. During that time, graduates of the Police Academy signed a statement that they wanted to work with the high school. Somehow, all of a sudden, most of the secretaries and drivers brought diplomas from certain faculties. And that's how the brutality of the Serbian police began, waiters ran elite services, and I'm not talking about the occupation of waiters. Obedience and submission were essential.

The Whistleblower Act gave me the ability to report violations of the law and be protected in some way in the event of retaliation. Of course, it turned out to be very different in practice.

After the publication of the book and several appearances in the media, strange things began to happen to me in all segments of life, especially in the area of ​​the judiciary. My mobbing case has been going on for almost nine years. According to the rules, as subjects of the highest urgency, it should have been completed in a year. After six years and three judges who have changed in the case, a verdict is handed down on 27 sides that I was mobbed by the SBPOK elders while I was working on the Ćuruvi case. The appellate court overturned the verdict and ordered that experts examine my mental pain and fears. From the list of experts, the judge chose a world-renowned psychiatrist who worked on well-known cases, and she came to the opinion that I suffered intense fears and mental pain.

In the meantime, I publish the book "Operativac" and receive icons for the family and for myself from the BIA. The same judge, in spite of the mentioned expert opinion and despite the fact that we pointed out that the elder who mobbed me presented incorrect information that entered the record, delivered a verdict completely opposite to the first verdict - expert opinions are not mentioned anywhere, and the court decides that I was not mobbed. The case is currently before the Court of Appeal in Belgrade and a decision is awaited.

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How did you deal with it all??

The real hero of this story is my wife, who was by my side all the time, suffered and is still suffering. Daniela is a forensic chemist with a degree in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia. Because of my struggle with windmills, she was totally isolated, all these years she was not sent to any training, she was not registered in the register of forensic experts, she was taken to a polygraph examination, she was sent for an extraordinary medical examination, she did not progress while everyone around her progressed. When I started working on the Ćuruvi case in 2011, my wife had the rank of major and today, after 12 years, she has the same rank. It seems to me that she has suffered the most damage. And I got sick, I had terrible heart problems, I could no longer do my job as a police officer according to the police law at the time, and I went on a disability pension. It is frightening that no one questions whether I am right in pointing out the illegal actions of the elders, whether the state and the service suffered damages, and whether I did something illegal in my actions. It all boils down to the question - what do I need? I realized a long time ago that I am loyal, but not submissive. Loyal to the country of Serbia, but I could not lose face and honor and act according to the illegal orders of elders.

How do you rate the opportunities in the MUP? u?

For a longer period of time, the most important characteristic for working in the MUP is obedience. This entails blind obedience and belonging to someone who is in charge. It has become quite normal for someone, whose vocabulary and general culture indicate that he hardly finished high school regularly, to suddenly appear with a diploma from a popular college, completed before the deadline, and not to stop there, but to go on to master's studies. I think that there have never been so many educated people in the MUP as now, and that's a lot of smarts in one place. I don't think the MUP has ever been so criminalized. Imagine, for example, how a police officer of SBPOK feels against whose chief SUK files a criminal complaint, and the latter proceeds with that criminal complaint. Well, then the prosecution gives up and this one advances once more. The inspector who is watching all this is frightened, and the state sends him a message: "Well, what if he has a criminal complaint, what if he is a member of the legal committee of the football club, what do you not understand?" Can you imagine how someone who has spent his entire working life in the MUP feels, watching a guy with three or four years of service get an apartment in Belgrade in the game "fast fingers" that he is currently renting out, and someone who is about to retire is silent because he has children? How does that inspector feel when they appoint yesterday's secretary as his boss? Eligible people are promoted. Everyone else is justifiably scared... They saw that people were being ground in a meat grinder in Belgrade and that their colleagues from the police were providing them with information.

How much is the public aware of the problems in the MUP in Serbia?

I think that the public is absolutely unaware of what happened and what is happening in the MUP. That's why my book is a bit scary, but also true with evidence. I almost talked to a journalist who is older than me and has been in the business for a very long time. I was interested in the answer to the headquarters that someone told him 20-25 years ago who will be the ministers of the police, the army, the BIA, the security sector in the last 15 years. He just laughed and told me that he would have answered him if he wasn't normal. This is the answer to the question of what is the biggest problem - the influence of politics in all the pores of the security structures and negative selection. Professionals are persecuted. One prosecutor told me that there is no greater drug than if, for example, you were convinced that you would be a waiter all your life and then by some miracle you are appointed to lead an elite service in the MUP and decide people's destinies. It is defended with life.

What are the biggest problems in the fight against organized and any other crime?

I think we need a strong, brave and independent prosecutor's office that would have certain services of the MUP under its jurisdiction. We are witnessing the constant leakage of information from the processing of corrupt police officers and their superiors. What is interesting and what I have been following from the media, most of the arrests took place after the delivery of the Sky communication. I think it is impossible that our services did not have information about organized criminal groups. Or are they?

While inspectors Slobodan Milenković and Dušan Mitić are on the government's unprecedented wallpaper, the accused Predrag Koluvija hangs out with ministers. What is it about??

One of the chiefs of the MUP stated that they could not make arrests on the highway because it was not their territory. A policeman is a policeman 24 hours a day. I think that both Milenković and Mitić alerted the public in such a way that they informed the public twice that they had arrested and then released the BIA workers who were following them, and they alerted the public externally by delivering notes to the prosecutor's office, so in my opinion they are also whistleblowers in a way . Each of us is a demonstration exercise - this is how every enemy will fare. Because you become an enemy even if you have a different opinion - either you are ours or you are not. And somehow I was nobody's whole life. Can you imagine the fear that reigned in the police after all these events?

While you were exposed to abuse in the service, could you count on the solidarity and support of colleagues?

One of my best friends in the MUP, on one occasion when we saw each other near his office, said to me: "Simo, they resent me a lot when they see me with you." At that moment, I was almost arrested or killed. Disciplinary proceedings in progress and they are preparing to fire me. That sentence sobered me up so much and lowered me to the ground that I am forever grateful to that colleague. Hey, people have a problem with me. Those people are deep in debt, fighting for themselves, they can't fight my battles, although I never asked for it... Many will recognize themselves in my book. And I don't blame anyone. Many of those colleagues who minded their own business called me when they needed help, especially now with systematization. And I helped everyone as much as I could. A colleague who got out of prison called me to have coffee. We haven't seen each other in five years. I can count on my fingers the colleagues who were with me. And again I say, I understand and I don't mind.

What do you remember from the police for good?, and what about the bad?

I remember human destinies. I remember horror stories. I don't know if anyone loved that job more than I did. I was lucky enough to be doing what I imagined I would be doing while I was studying at the Higher School of the Interior. I met true professionals that I was in awe of. This is another police force. Two or three years ago, while she was practicing pronouncing difficult words, my daughter told me that she wanted to be a graduate engineer in chemical engineering - a forensic scientist, like her mother. She almost looked at some of my photos and said she wanted to be an inspector. I wanted to say "you won't", but I kept silent.

I think I would choose the same path again. Heraclitus said: character is man's destiny.

Finally, which is what the rest of the book is about "Operative"?

The continuation of the book "Operativac" will be called "When they come to the threshold". What does it look like when someone is preparing to liquidate the head of the Working Group, what does it look like when the system rejects you and you have no protection, instead you prepare yourself for the worst. And in this part of the documents, the official part of the story will be followed: how the criminal charges against the SBPOK chiefs were dismissed, who played what role in Sablja and why it was risky for me to find out... That's for the readers. And for colleagues who think that all this is happening far away from them, they should think about when someone will stick the enemy label on them and come to their doorstep.