Informal commission calls for expanding investigation into Novi Sad accident to include Vučić's associates

The informal Inquiry Commission, formed by a group of experts after the canopy collapse in Novi Sad, has called on the prosecutor's office to expand the investigation into the accident to include associates of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, whom it suspects is at the head of a "criminal group".

"The collapse of the canopy is a consequence of the actions of an organized criminal group that, in a chain of various events and actions, led to this outcome," said Tanasije Marinković, one of the members of the informal Commission, professor at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, at a press conference.

He stated that the Inquiry Commission believes that "there are grounds for suspicion that the President of the Republic is at the head of this criminal group, and we call on the Public Prosecutor's Office to expand its investigation, to question his associates as witnesses and some of them as suspects."

The Belgrade authorities deny responsibility for the collapse of the reconstructed railway station canopy, which killed 16 people on November 1, 2024.

The Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad has filed an indictment against 13 people, including former Minister of Construction Goran Vesić.

The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime in Belgrade has also launched an investigation into possible corruption in the reconstruction project, which, in addition to Vesić, also includes former Minister of Infrastructure Tomislav Momirović.

The reconstruction of the Novi Sad Railway Station building has been under investigation for several months by the European Prosecutor's Office due to possible misuse of money from European Union funds.

The concrete canopy collapsed just a few months after the grand opening following the reconstruction.

The contractor was the Chinese consortium ''China Railway International'' and ''China Communications Construction Company''.

The informal Inquiry Commission was formed in February by a group of professors, lawyers, and experts, and its members have pointed out the shortcomings and lack of transparency of the project to reconstruct the Railway Station building since its inception.