His departure towards Turkey relates to numerous arrests of businessmen and officials linked to the former power structures in Serbia, which began after the loss of Aleksandar Vuciqi and the Serbian Progressive Party in Serbia’s extraordinary parliamentary elections, held on 25 October.

COMM SKY RESERNCE AND LIVING With STATES

Zvonko Veselinovic’s name has been displayed for years in security services reports, international sanctions documents and journalistic research on links between criminal structures, politics and state contracts.

The CRIKI survey, based on messages from the SKY app, tells of Veselinovic’s influence on political and security structures in Serbia, as well as the way companies associated with it obtained lucrative state contracts.

These communications also mention his proximity to Andrej Vucicin, brother of former Serbian president Aleksandar Vuciq.

According to the content of messages published by the KRIK, Veselinovic was able to influence the quodro appointments to the police. Thus, in 2020, he was reportedly opposed to Veselin Miliqi’s appointment, then chief of the Criminal Police Directorate, in the post of police director.

The messages said that Veselinovic, through Andrej Vuciqi, had conveyed the message that he would no longer help the Serbian Progressive Party if Miliqi was appointed to that position.

Milici is being tried for failing to report a murder to the restaurant in Belgrade’s Senjak district.

Communications in the SKY have also highlighted Veselinovic’s business interests, whose construction company, Incop, has participated in major infrastructure projects in Serbia, while contracts related to these companies seized millions of euros.

Brother, you know how many millions you’re taking. And yet they seem few, it’s one of the messages that a member of a rival criminal group has sent out talking about Veselinovic.

WRITER IN ) U.S. S.A. AND GREAT BRITAIN

The US Treasury Department placed Veselinovic on the list of sanctioned persons in December 2021, naming him leader of an organised criminal group suspected of involvement in corruption and illegal trade between Serbia and Kosovo.

According to the American authorities’ reasoning, the group acted through ties with certain security officials and politicians while dealing with smuggling of goods, money, drugs and weapons.

In December 2022, sanctions against Veselinovic also imposed Great Britain, stressing that it had benefited financially from corruption, respectively, from giving public contracts to its companies irregularly.

Despite international sanctions, companies associated with it continued to participate in infrastructure projects in Serbia, which Radio Free Europe had reported earlier.

V RA OLIV’S SLAY ER IVANOVICE

Veselinovic’s name has also been mentioned in investigations into the murder of Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic, who was killed on January 16th 2018 in northern Mitrovica.

Kosovo’s prosecutor had linked Veselinovic and his vice done, Milan Radojchiqi, to this case, citing in the context of the alleged organisers of a criminal group.

However, no indictment has been filed against Veselinovic in this case. Radio Free Europe had reported earlier that his and Radojciqi’s names were mentioned in the prosecution’s claims, but no procedure was initiated through the indictment.

WORLD BALLKAN

Veselinovic’s departure to Istanbul is reportedly not random, since some Balkan criminal clan members have taken refuge in Turkey. Thus, for a time in this country, Jovan Vukotic, one of the leaders of the Shkalari clan, who was killed in Istanbul in 2022, was hidden.

So far, however, there is no public information that would indicate the reason for Veselinovic’s departure to Istanbul, nor a confirmation that it is an escape from any possible procedure of competent organs.

Tamara Nikchev is an associate of RTK and covers topics from the region.

 

Source Layer: RTKLive