Prosecutors Open Cases Against Minister Djuric, 10 Envoys
The Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime has opened cases on complaints alleging abuse of office and violations of voting rights in the October 25 election.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime has opened cases on criminal complaints against Marko Djuric, Serbia’s caretaker foreign minister, and ten Serbian ambassadors. A statement carried by the media on October 28 says the suspicions involve abuse of office and crimes against electoral rights, in connection with voting abroad on October 25. These are criminal complaints, not an indictment or a verdict: none of the people named has been convicted.
Who has been reported, and for what?
The prosecutors say the complaints cover three types of offenses: abuse of office, violation of voting rights and obstruction of voting. The first cases were opened on two complaints, against the ambassador to Slovakia, Aleksandar Nakic, and the ambassador to the United States, Dragan Sutanovac. The prosecutors then received 13 more complaints, including those against Nakic and Sutanovac. The ambassadors also reported are:
- Ana Hrustanovic, France
- Dragan Simeunovic, Romania
- Ivan Trifunovic, Switzerland
- Milan Ravic, Bulgaria
- Nebojsa Rodic, Montenegro
- Rade Stefanovic, Australia
- Stefan Tomasevic, Canada
- Vladimir Maric, United Arab Emirates
Complaints were also filed against the minister himself. Djuric and Vesko Radovic, head of the security department in the Foreign Ministry’s General Secretariat, were reported on suspicion of abuse of office and violation of voting rights. The complaint against the ministry’s acting secretary general, Dusan Kozarev, concerns abuse of office only. The prosecutors sum up the suspicion in one sentence: “The complaints concern suspected abuse of office and violation of voting rights.”
What have the prosecutors done so far?
The prosecutors say they are acting under the General Binding Instruction of the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office of October 20, 2026, which covers crimes against electoral rights. On the same day, October 20, they asked the Foreign Ministry and the Republic Electoral Commission for the necessary information. The Interior Ministry’s Organized Crime Unit has also been tasked with checks. The prosecutors said in their statement:
“Immediately upon receiving the criminal complaints, the acting public prosecutor for organized crime urgently began gathering information and asked MUP - SBPOK to carry out checks, by submitting a request to collect the necessary information.”
The statement does not give the exact date on which the police checks were requested, only that it was done immediately after the complaints arrived.
What led up to the prosecutors’ decision?
The cases follow a dispute over how voting was organized in the diaspora. On October 5, on the Foreign Ministry’s proposal, the Republic Electoral Commission decided that voting abroad would take place at 93 polling stations. At the previous election 81 were opened, and more than 102,000 citizens registered to vote abroad this time. Part of the diaspora says it could not vote on October 25.
The Democratic Party, which is not running in the election but backed the Student List, filed complaints. According to Vreme, they concern Kozarev, Sutanovac and Nakic, and the Kreni-Promeni movement claimed that they “directly obstruct” the voting of Serbian citizens in those countries.
Before this decision, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade dismissed criminal complaints against Djuric, Kozarev and ten ambassadors, Tanjug has learned. The reasoning was that the essential elements of crimes against official duty were not met. The complaints are now before the organized crime prosecutors, under the instruction the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office issued for crimes against electoral rights.
Djuric earlier called the claims that his ministry obstructs voting false. He said that when the number of polling stations is set, it is not only the number of registered voters that counts, but also logistical, security, space and staffing criteria. In the sources we reviewed, there is no response from the ministry or the reported ambassadors to the opening of cases at the organized crime prosecutor’s office.
