{"id":17877,"date":"2017-07-20T15:16:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T13:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/en\/?p=17877"},"modified":"2017-07-20T15:16:46","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T13:16:46","slug":"serbian-presidents-party-tied-football-hooligans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/en\/serbian-presidents-party-tied-football-hooligans\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbian President\u2019s Party Tied to Football Hooligans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Bojana Pavlovi\u0107 and Stevan Doj\u010dinovi\u0107<\/em><\/p>\n

The official photos of the May 31 inauguration of Aleksandar Vucic present an idyllic scene \u00a0— \u00a0for good reason.<\/p>\n

Even as Serbia\u2019s new president pledged to do his utmost to preserve \u201chuman and minorities\u2019 rights and freedoms,\u201d men outside the building were forcefully removing inconvenient protesters and journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re strangling me. You\u2019re strangling me! I haven\u2019t done anything!\u201d\u00a0yelled<\/a>\u00a0a young anti-Vucic protester as a group of burly men dragged him away by the neck.<\/p>\n

Then they\u00a0turned against<\/a>\u00a0a woman reporter for the newspaper Danas, who was trying to interview an elderly man holding an anti-government banner.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop taking photos or I\u2018ll take that phone from you,\u201d one of the men commanded, before lifting her up and carrying her away.<\/p>\n

A man held a photographer by the neck while another grabbed his arms to prevent him from taking photos of protesters. Another photographer documented the scene.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Men assault anti-Vucic protesters during the new Serbian president’s inauguration ceremony on May 31. (Photo: E-stock.us\/Aleksandar Ba\u010dlija)<\/p><\/div>\n

After the event, Vucic first apologized, then justified the violence, saying that the men had been doing their jobs providing security for the ceremony.<\/p>\n

In an\u00a0official statement<\/a>, his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) criticized media outlets that reported on the violence, accusing them of biased coverage in favor of anti-Vucic protesters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose same outlets are [now] lynching the SNS guards who prevented incidents by the protesters, openly targeting them and portraying them as some kind of a monstrous group of bullies,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

Senior SNS lawmaker\u00a0Vladimir Djukanovi\u0107 Djuka tweeted<\/a>: \u201cFull support for the boys who removed the provocateurs from the lawful SNS gathering.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victims later said that none of the attackers explained who they were or had any identifying insignia that would show they were there in an official capacity.<\/p>\n

KRIK, a Serbian partner to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), found that at least one of them did have links to a notorious underworld figure.<\/p>\n

In Serbia, collusion between criminals and government officials stretches back to the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early \u201890s. Football hooligans supported the nationalistic cause of late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, and even fought for the cause in organized paramilitary units.<\/p>\n

One of their most notorious leaders was Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, who recruited a\u00a0brutal<\/a>\u00a0paramilitary force widely known as the \u201cTigers\u201d from the ranks of Belgrade\u2019s soccer hooligans. The group\u2019s crimes earned Arkan a indictment from the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but he was killed in 2000 before any further action was taken.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ever since, soccer hooligans have played an important role in Serbian politics.<\/p>\n

KRIK found evidence that the connections among the Serbian government, the criminal underworld, and the soccer hooligans did not end with the arrival of Vucic, the country\u2019s new pro-Western president.<\/p>\n

A young man in a blue shirt, shown firmly pinning the arms of a protester in one of the inauguration photos, is an associate of one of Serbia\u2019s most notorious underground figures, reporters found.<\/p>\n

According to his Facebook profile, Borko Aranitovic — who sometimes works as a security guard on Belgrade\u2019s party barges — is close to the crew of Aleksandar Stankovic, an underworld boss assassinated last October better known as \u201cSale the Mute.\u201d Stankovic was\u00a0convicted<\/a>\u00a0of leading a criminal group that was dealing drugs but never served his sentence after\u00a0convincing judges<\/a>\u00a012 times to postpone it, claiming to have a medical condition. He was also known as the leader of the Janjicari, violent football hooligans associated with the Partizan team.<\/p>\n

Reporters identified Aranitovic by comparing his Facebook photos with those from the inauguration. They clearly show the same person — a young man with a striking profile, a mole on his chin, and what appears to be a scar on his head.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photos of Borko Aranitovic from his Facebook profile<\/p><\/div>\n

Other photos on his Facebook page show him\u00a0working as a security guard\u00a0on the \u201cFreestyler,\u201d a nightclub barge moored on Belgrade\u2019s Sava river. He is also\u00a0seen with\u00a0members of Sale the Mute\u2019s gang.<\/p>\n

He again appears in their company in a security camera video that shows the gang beating Zoran Jaksic, a leader of the deadly Group America, a former murder squad that has become a major global drug wholesaler. Jaksic is currently on trial in Peru for drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

The footage went public after a video of someone watching it — and laughing along — was published by Kurir and Blic, two popular dailies. Kurir identified the voice as that of Nenad Vuckovic (\u201cVucko\u201d), a member of a special police force called the Gendarmerie.<\/p>\n

Police connections<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vuckovic\u2019s connection to Sale the Mute and his gang has been amply demonstrated.<\/p>\n

He is mentioned in a\u00a0criminal complaint<\/a>\u00a0filed against two military officers suspected of letting him and Sale the Mute use an Army shooting range, weapons, and ammunition for target practice.<\/p>\n

And when Sale the Mute was assassinated, an obituary submitted to a newspaper — signed by \u201cVucko\u201d — read: \u201cLast greeting to my best man.\u201d Shortly afterwards, a photo of the two men cheering at a Partizan football match appeared in the media.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Aranitovic and Vu\u010dkovi\u0107<\/p><\/div>\n

Their association demonstrates the personal ties between Serbia\u2019s underworld and its law enforcement apparatus.<\/p>\n

Police Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic did not see Vuckovic and Stakovic\u2019s friendship as a problem. \u201cCheering is not against the law,\u201d he\u00a0told journalists.<\/p>\n

Aranitovic\u2019s Facebook profile provides the newest evidence of their association, featuring\u00a0a photo of him\u00a0with Vuckovic, the special police officer Vuckovic.<\/p>\n

There is no investigation into Vuckovic\u2018s links to criminals, the Interior Ministry told KRIK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Bojana Pavlovi\u0107 and Stevan Doj\u010dinovi\u0107 The official photos of the May 31 inauguration of Aleksandar Vucic present an idyllic scene \u00a0— \u00a0for good reason. Even as Serbia\u2019s new president pledged to do his utmost to preserve \u201chuman and minorities\u2019 rights and freedoms,\u201d men outside the building were forcefully [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigations","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nSerbian President\u2019s Party Tied to Football Hooligans - KRIK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/en\/serbian-presidents-party-tied-football-hooligans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Serbian President\u2019s Party Tied to Football Hooligans - KRIK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Written by Bojana Pavlovi\u0107 and Stevan Doj\u010dinovi\u0107 The official photos of the May 31 inauguration of Aleksandar Vucic present an idyllic scene \u00a0— \u00a0for good reason. 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