Marko Kricak, head of Serbia's criminal police directorate, was arrested and charged with abuse of office, state media reported Sunday. Prosecutors say he suppressed and manipulated an investigation into the May murder of a suspected criminal underworld figure in a Belgrade restaurant.
Kricak, 42, was known as a supporter of defeated Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, whose right-wing populist party lost parliamentary elections on October 25 to the opposition Student List. He has also been accused by student groups of brutality in police responses to anti-Vucic demonstrations. Student leaders demanded the removal of Kricak and other Vucic loyalists from Serbia's police and intelligence apparatus.
Belgrade's chief prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic said the arrest has no connection to the election result. "This arrest has no link with the result of the legislative elections," he told journalists.
Kricak worked as a car salesman before joining Serbia's domestic intelligence agency, the BIA, as a loyal supporter of Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party. In July 2023 he was appointed commander of the Serbian police's personal protection unit. Prosecutors allege he personally led the abduction of university students in that role, assaulting one female student and threatening to rape her in a government building basement in Belgrade. At the end of 2025 he was appointed head of the Serbian Criminal Police.