Why did Vučić decide to be a bigger Trump than Trump and to further humiliate those who should take care of law enforcement in Serbia
In the continuation of the attempt to stop and render meaningless any resistance in Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić decided to "hit the NGO". Since there are no "natural enemies" because the opposition went underground, the regime aimed at those who have no protection, and since the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House and the beginning of Elon Musk's work on "redefining" the American federal government, on those who have received the strongest possible enemies.
Tuesday, February 25 was reserved for the "invasion" of police officers of the Criminal Police Directorate in four civil society organizations that were allegedly abusing money received from the funds of the American development agency USAID. The police raided the premises of Civic Initiatives, the Center for Practical Politics, the Trag Foundation and the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability - CRTA, looking for documentation that could support the suspicion that something illegal was being done in those organizations with the money they received from the American USAID.
EXPANSION OF POWER
This US development agency was among the first to be attacked by the new US government after Donald Trump took office as US president. At the beginning of this month, Trump's right-hand man in "administration reform" - the richest man in the world, Elon Musk - announced that "USAID is a criminal organization and must be liquidated."
From that moment, the spread of the regime in Serbia and its paramedia satellites began. It threatened everyone who was critical of Vučić and his government for the last 12 years and said that soon everyone who received money from USAID and other foreign organizations would be exposed, and some of them would even be extradited to America to be tried there.
Although there is no official investigation in Washington about the misuse of American taxpayers' money, the Serbian regime offered itself, without anyone asking, to investigate it in Serbia and to help the US Bureau of Investigation, even though they did not ask for their help.
The police, who two weeks ago "invaded" the homes and offices of low-ranking SNS members and arrested them for embezzling millions of euros of public money from Serbian citizens, on Tuesday decided to do something similar with non-governmental organizations and show that they also misused money - only from American citizens.
DISTRACTION AND DISTRESS
In summary: the prosecutor launched an investigation that is nothing more than a story that some civil society organizations are spending money from American citizens for jobs they did not report. This comes after several weeks of Aleksandar Vučić's campaign on the topic of the fight against color revolutions, so it should mean that Vučić allowed the group that spent American money to overthrow him to be prosecuted. To achieve this, he corrupted/abused the Public Prosecution Service. And on Tuesday at the press conference, it was seen that Stefanović was "swallowing dumplings" because he too, obedient and loyal, knows that he is doing something for which tomorrow, in a normal state, he could be held accountable. Vučić chose organizations and personalities that he had previously branded as his enemies. He even gave the tabloids the information that Dragan Popović from the Center for Modern Politics "fled to Croatia". This "information" was disseminated to the public by RTS, making it completely equal to the worst tabloids of the Vučić regime. Popović, of course, called and said that he was already in Belgrade on Wednesday and that he was not running away from anyone. He and his wife, Maja Stojanović, who works in Civic Initiatives, have been targeted by the regime for a long time, and Vučić mentioned them several times, marking them as the organizers of the "colored revolution".
In short, Vučić forced the prosecution to embarrass itself: to announce that it is seeking evidence from the US Department of Justice, which in the US is a function merged with the federal prosecutor, on the circumstances of the statements of US public officials (see box). Stefanović heard on TV and wrote to America that he was sending him evidence regarding the claims of some people in America, including the President of America!
The president of Serbia initiated this action in the week in which he failed to resolve the protest of educators, and all of Serbia is preparing to go to Niš, to a new rally to which Serbian students were invited. As before, he is trying in every way to draw the public's attention to something else. So he let some low-ranking officials down the drain, and when he saw that nothing came of it, he returned to his old manner: threaten, intimidate, and even arrest if you can. He activated the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office from Belgrade for his PR activities. The fact that Prosecutor Stefanović for years avoided launching an investigation against those who were officially designated by the US administration as members of organized criminal groups - Zvonk Veselinović, his brother Žarko and partner Milan Radoičić - and did nothing even regarding the sanctions against Serbian Government Ministers Nenad Popović and Aleksandar Vulin.
One hundred days after the start of the student blockades, things have been cleared up: no demands have been fulfilled because Serbia does not have an independent prosecutor's office, which should fulfill three out of four student demands. Vučić has complete control in that domain. There is no question of institutions starting to work, of students walking around Serbia seeing a functioning state. The regime has shrunk like a hedgehog and stings anyone who comes near it. Now, as in the previous hundred days, everything is up to the citizens and students - to see if it is possible to continue like this or if more needs to be done to free Serbia from this regime. Maybe we'll see that already this weekend in Nis.
In the statement read by prosecutor Nebojša Stefanović at the press conference in front of RTS and Tanjug cameras, it is said:
"The special anti-corruption department of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade has established a case and has turned to the United States Department of Justice to provide the necessary information regarding the suspicions raised by the USAID (US Agency for International Development) in the previous period regarding the misuse of funds, possible money laundering and the misuse of American taxpayers' funds in Serbia. (…)
Specifically, assistance is requested from the US Ministry of Justice in obtaining evidence, providing information or possible findings of experts, providing financial, economic or business records (contracts, accounts, etc.), data from banks or other financial institutions, and identifying or finding proceeds from crime or other things that can be used as evidence in criminal proceedings in the Republic of Serbia before the competent court.
At the same time, due to the seriousness of the accusations, and in order to verify the allegations and collect evidence related to suspicions about the misuse of USAID funds, misuse of funds and possible money laundering by non-governmental organizations in Serbia, the Special Department for Suppression of Corruption of the Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade sent a request to the police to collect the necessary information in order to determine whether there are grounds for suspecting that a person has committed a criminal offense under the jurisdiction of this department," said the chief public prosecutor.
In commenting on this event, the representatives of Civic Initiatives issued a statement, and the representatives of CRTA and the Trag foundation made short announcements on social networks in which they confirm the intrusion of the police and say that they will cooperate in all ways with the competent institutions of Serbia. In the announcement of Citizen Initiatives, there is also an assessment of this procedure:
"This is a serious attack on basic civil rights and the continuation of illegal pressure on civil society in Serbia. The governing structures are trying to implement mechanisms of intimidation and persecution without adopting the Law on Foreign Agents, which has entered the parliamentary procedure, but has not yet been formally adopted. This use of the police for political purposes represents a gross abuse of state institutions to deal with dissidents and the continued suppression of free and democratic action in Serbia."
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Extraordinary session of the High Prosecution Council
Prosecutors without protection from Vučić's pressures subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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