Vučić: Police reacted when wife reported missing AN, case has nothing to do with drug dealers

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said today, commenting on criticism that the police reacted late in the case of AN's disappearance from a Belgrade restaurant in Senjak, after which 10 people were arrested, including three police officers and Belgrade Police Chief Veselin Milić, that the police started working when they received a report.

"They say: 'The police were silent for two days (after the disappearance)'. So it was only after 15, 18 p.m., when the wife came to report that her husband was missing, told what happened, where and how he had gone, that the police started working," Vučić told Serbian journalists in Azerbaijan.

Commenting on the statement by the leader of the Freedom and Justice Party (SSP), Dragan Đilas, that crime in Serbia today and the connection between the state and criminals are greater than in Colombia, for which he blamed Vučić's government, the president asked "what connection does this case have with drug dealers and Colombia."

"This had nothing to do with it. You didn't even bother to ask what it was about," Vučić said.

According to him, the police and the state showed "absolute professionalism, respecting the presumption of innocence" in that case.

"The police officers are not suspected of participating in the murder. What was the point? Like when you handcuffed Džajić and Cvetković, and then had to let them go because you had nothing? But you presented Serbian legends as a football mafia," Vučić said.

He added that everyone is innocent until proven otherwise in court.

"And at the same time, there is no basis for doubt, as far as I understand, that (Milić) participated in the commission of the most serious criminal offense, but rather in covering it up or I don't know what else. The state reacted quickly on this issue as well and showed that there are no protected individuals and that it will act and do as the prosecutor says," he stated.

He assessed that the problem in the entire case was that there were people from the security system who were guarding "people from the underworld", again announcing that the state would pass a law prohibiting this.

"We have regulations that say that police officers are not allowed to do that. What was the problem with this has nothing to do with Milić, this, or that, but rather the fact that people are appearing to protect people who are part of the underworld. So wait, who do you actually work for?" Vučić asked.