Exactly nine months after the collapse of a canopy from the Novi Sad Railway Station building, which killed 16 people, the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (JTOK) has begun making arrests as part of its investigation into the financial flows of the Novi Sad-Kelebija railway reconstruction project.
In the operation yesterday morning, Tomislav Momirović, who was the Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure at the time of the reconstruction, was arrested. In addition to him, ten other people were arrested on suspicion of damaging the Serbian budget by 115 million dollars through corrupt actions, the Beta agency reported.
Among those arrested is former Acting Assistant Minister and Head of the Railways and Intermodal Transport Sector, Anita Dimoski, who was also the responsible person-mentor in that ministry for monitoring all activities related to the reconstruction of the railway.
The former acting general director of the company "Infrastruktura Željeznice Srbije", Nebojša Šurlan (2020-2024), was also arrested and, together with Momirović and Dimoski, is charged with the criminal offense of abuse of official position.
Also deprived of their liberty were Nikola Trivić, a responsible person in the company "Starting", suspected of the criminal offense of abuse of office by a responsible person, as well as the former director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Novi Sad, Siniša Jokić, and the public procurement officer of that institute, Veljko Novaković, who are charged with committing the criminal offense of abuse of office.
The procedure also includes Goran Vesić, who was Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure from October 2022 to November 2024, and who has been receiving hospital treatment since yesterday.
Yesterday, the responsible person and owner of the company "Deko Team" from Beška, Nenad Ignjatović, the investment manager of "Infrastructure of Serbian Railways" and the manager of the Project for the Modernization and Reconstruction of the Hungarian-Serbian Railway Connection Belgrade - Budapest, Slobodanka Katanić, were arrested.
The director and responsible person of the Youth Cooperative "Manager" Aleksandar Cvjetković was also arrested, as were responsible persons in several business entities, Dragan Popović and Zoran Mijajlović, JTOK stated.
The investigation determined that they provided the Chinese contractor with at least $18 million in material benefits and damaged the budget by $115 million.
The prosecution alleges that by concluding annexes to commercial contracts and agreements, the suspects Momirović, Vesić, Dimoski, Šurlan and Katanić enabled the contractor, a consortium of Chinese companies CRIC - CCCC, to invoice the financier and investor for the total value of the work performed on the project in the amount of 1,21 billion dollars.
The suspects, according to the prosecution, also enabled the contractor to perform additional work for which the obligation of subsequent payment upon invoicing was assumed in the amount of 64 million dollars, thereby obtaining material benefit for the contractor, in the value of at least 18 million dollars determined so far, and causing damage to the Serbian budget in the amount of 115.558.520,43 US dollars, which represents the difference between the assumed financial obligations for the Serbian budget and the contractual price from the Commercial Agreement.
Yesterday's arrests, it was added, are the result of the previous work of the Strike Group for the investigation of financial flows related to the project "Modernization and reconstruction of the Hungarian-Serbian railway on the route Novi Sad - Subotica - state border (Kelebija)".
The members of this group are police officers of the Service for Combating Organized Crime - Department for Suppression of Financial Organized Crime and the Department for Prevention of Money Laundering, Department for Combating Corruption, Tax Police inspectors, members of the Financial Investigation Unit, employees of the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering and the Business Registers Agency, and the Public Prosecutor's Office team for organized crime, consisting of four public prosecutors, three financial forensic experts, and two prosecutorial associates.
The statement added that the Strike Group continues to work on investigating financial flows related to other aspects of the railway reconstruction project.
The citizens of Novi Sad marked nine months since the canopy collapse yesterday. At the call of the Novi Sad choirs, they paid tribute to the victims of the tragedy by observing 16 minutes of silence at several of Novi Sad's largest intersections.
A canopy at the Novi Sad station collapsed on November 1, 2024, killing 14 people and seriously injuring three. Over the next few months, two more of the three seriously injured died.
The tragedy has sparked a wave of mass anti-government protests across Serbia. Hundreds of thousands of citizens have taken to the streets over the past eight months with a key demand - to establish criminal and political responsibility for the accident. The protests focus on allegations that corruption led to the canopy collapse.
Engineer Đajić: Key data is still being kept, Momirović accelerated the work
Geological engineer Zoran Đajić, who was among the first to point out irregularities during the reconstruction of the Novi Sad Railway Station, stated that key data regarding the collapse of the canopy is still being preserved.
Commenting on Momirović's arrest, Đajić told N1 television that he was present when the former minister arrived at the construction site and asked for the work to be accelerated so that it could be completed in time for the opening, which would be attended by the mayor and the "entourage" from the Serbian Presidency.
"A third shift was even introduced so that a certain type of work in that first phase would be completed on time, so that the then mayor and the entire entourage from the Presidency would come to that opening, so the fact is that they asked for the work to be accelerated. (...) It is true that the government insisted all along that the work be completed as soon as possible, regardless of the quality of the work, regardless of the fact that there was an extremely small number of qualified engineering and other workforce at the construction site," said Đajić.
He stated that much of the reconstruction data has been released thanks to student requests, but that "key data is still being withheld."
"At the head of this organization that keeps this information in a drawer so that it is not published, so that the truth is not found out, is the president of the state, together with former ministers Vesić and Momirović," claims Đajić.
He said that the flow of money was controlled directly from the Serbian Presidency's office, and that it, together with the ministers, was responsible for why not all data was published.
"I have hinted several times that if all financial data were published and all contracts were opened, it would become clear how the money flowed and how that bloody money influenced the collapse of the canopy and the organization of very poor work by the contractors of the 'Starting' company and the Chinese companies that were directly subordinate to them," Đajić said.
The president of the Social Democratic Party and former president of Serbia (2004-2012), Boris Tadić, assessed that whether yesterday's arrests "at the bottom of the pyramid" lead to the top of that pyramid depends on whether the prosecutor's move is "a historic step towards change in Serbia or not."
"In any case, it is of utmost importance that this action receives the broadest and strongest support, so that it does not end with Toma Mona (Tomislav Momirović) as a scapegoat, but leads to the sanctioning of all those criminally and politically responsible for the tragedy in Novi Sad," Tadić wrote on the Iks website.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has scheduled an emergency session of the National Security Council for today at noon.
"Regarding the color revolution and the criminal behavior of the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, not against organized crime, I will speak about that tomorrow, as well as about their media workers and their henchmen within the Serbian police," Vučić said.
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