Branislav Nedimović, a high state official and high-ranking member of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), caused a traffic accident in which a motorcycle driver suffered severe injuries. On that same evening, the system was put to work and the accident was swiftly covered up. The accident took place when Nedimović was a minister, in Belgrade, on September 8, 2022, at 7:20 PM. Not a single word has ever been published about it. Until today.
18.01.
2024.
Five years after the accident, the same dilemma haunts them - what is the secret captured on camera and seen only by the Serbian president?
8.02.
2024.
In order to write anything about it, I must first get over the rush of emotion caused by this colossal untruth and injustice.
15.02.
2024.
It is still not known what this company, with the Serbian-Russian ownership and registered at the address 11 Nemanjina St, is used for.
With numerous omissions, the cover-up continued at the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, that is, the Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office (OJT), which has not moved the investigation forward for one and a half years. Until NIN started investigating the covered up traffic accident of a high official and, primarily, the actions (and omissions) of a judiciary that has lost its way, or is acting on the political dictate of the prosecution system.
Nedimović was driving a white Skoda SUV. The vehicle, however, did not belong to him, or to the Government of which he was a member, but to the General Affairs Administration of the City of Sremska Mitrovica. As a member of the SNS Presidency, he is regarded as the official who keeps the Progressives in power in that important municipality in Srem. Those familiar with the political situation say that this particular municipality, along with a part of Srem, is another reason why Nedimović is well protected by the government.
The minister caused the accident at the intersection of Pariske komune and Studentska streets (Novi Beograd municipality), where the traffic is directed by traffic lights. He turned left and hit the motorcyclist who was driving through a green light and had the right of way over the minister. The motorcyclist G. R. (1978), whose name is known to the editorial staff, was left lying motionless on the ground.
According to the police report, to which NIN had access, and which was sent to the Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office, the minister was responsible for the accident and the motorcyclist suffered severe injuries. Initially, he was diagnosed with multiple fractures: right forearm, right lower leg, pelvic bone fractures.... The police report submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office was marked D-5001/22 and it was forwarded in early September.
The injured motorcyclist was first taken to the Zemun Hospital, and then to the Clinical Center (KC) of Serbia. He had surgeries on his pelvis, bladder, legs (twice), and arms. A doctor has told NIN that he specifically remembers the injured man because Minister Nedimović and then Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar came to visit him. Due to severity of his injuries, the motorcyclist was placed in an induced coma, and had to be given more than 20 units of blood to compensate for the massive blood loss.
- He was first operated on several hours after the accident, and then immediately the next day he had the bladder operation that lasted several hours – says our source who asked that his identity not be revealed.
The injured G. R. was constantly in hospitals for about two months.
“Based on the on-site investigation, the traffic accident occurred when the driver Nedimović Branislav was driving a passenger vehicle SM 044-LB on the roadway of Pariske komune St. from the direction of Narodnih heroja St. towards Tošin bunar St. in the left lane. Arriving at the intersection with Studentska St., he turned left, on which occasion the right-hand side of the vehicle he was driving was hit from the front by a Yamaha motorcycle driven by G. R., which was travelling on the same street from the opposite direction in the left lane. After the contact, the motorcycle with the driver fell on the right-hand side of the roadway,” specifies the police report submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office.
It also states that the deputy public prosecutor on duty at the Third OJT Marina Jevtić was informed, but did not visit the scene:
- She stated that a traffic and technical inspection should be carried out for the passenger vehicle SM 044 LB and the motorcycle and that the case in the form of a report should be submitted to the competent prosecutor’s office in the regular manner.
And it was precisely in the first moments after the accident that the first omission was made. The prosecutor did not visit the scene for on-site inspection, which is mandatory. Even more so due to the fact that a state official, a minister, was involved in the accident. NIN tried to get answers from the then chief prosecutor of the Third OJT Jelena Biorčević Cerović.
- I cannot comment on that case, I haven’t been there for a long time, in Belgrade, I am now in Pančevo. I cannot comment retroactively on cases from the past, regardless of how and what happened – claims Cerović.
TANJUG / Jadranka Ilić
According to NIN’s sources, the public prosecutor who was supposed to inspect the scene, Marina Jevtić, after the call received from the police on site, called her superiors. The circle of calls closed around the minister and the reply was to not go to the scene. We did not manage to get a comment on this, even retroactively, from Biorčević Cerović.
At the time when we started investigating this case, it was still at the Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office marked with KTR, specifically at a high-ranking SNS official KTR 2538/22. In simple terms, KTR is a prosecution’s mark meaning that the entire event is still at the level of report, still being inspected, with no investigation or criminal charges. Exactly one and a half years after the accident, Nedimović’s case was at a standstill.
The case involving a severe traffic accident was filed with the Prosecutor’s Office on September 23, 2022. It was first processed by prosecutor Marina Jevtić, who was on maternity leave for months. By the time we started our investigation and called our first sources at the Prosecutor’s Office, in late December last year, the activities of the Prosecutor’s Office relating to the Nedimović case were literally just a few pre-investigative actions focused primarily on KBC Zemun, where the injured motorcyclist was initially taken. Although the injured G. R. was immediately diagnosed with severe injuries, it did not prevent the Prosecutor’s Office from sending a request for collection of information (PO) to the Zemun Hospital, on several occasions. A PO request was first sent on September 26, 2022, and then another, one month later. A new PO request was sent the following year, on January 23, and then one more on April 20, 2023. The thin file containing the minister’s case also includes a memo to the Magistrates Court dated April 6, 2023, an expert’s submission dated October 11, 2023, and an acknowledgement of receipt from KBC Zemun, dated November 8, 2023.
The case would be pulled “from the drawer” from time to time at a level of request for verification. And that was it, even though the intersection where the accident took place is under video surveillance.
Former war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukčević, who in his long career as a prosecutor in the then District, and now Higher Prosecutor’s Office, worked on the most difficult cases, including traffic accidents such as the fatal accident in the Terazije tunnel, tells NIN that the length of time that the official’s case was being held back, is absolutely unacceptable.
- It’s not standard practice and, to put it simply, it’s not normal, especially when the consequences of the accident are that severe. Normally, the optimal time for filing indictment is two to three months at most. Cases like these are quickly resolved – Vukčević notes.
When asked if the prosecutor was obliged to go on site, the former prosecutor says yes:
She had to inspect the scene after receiving the information about a severe traffic accident.
NIN tried to get answers from Branislav Nedimović, who is currently Vice-President of the Football Association of Serbia (FSS). We tried calling the former minister several times on the phone number that journalists generally use to contact him, and then, as advised by the FSS PR team, we sent our questions to the FSS administration, and we were told that they would be forwarded to Nedimović. Among other things, we asked the high-ranking SNS official if he, or someone on his behalf, influenced the work of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in any way. We also asked if he thought that his being a state official had influence on the passage of time in his case, considering that the cases involving citizens who caused similar accidents are generally concluded much more quickly. We did not get any answers, including to the question if this accident had led to him not being re-appointed minister.
NIN / Aleksandar Dimitrijević
Despite the fact that in the last few election cycles Nedimović was often mentioned in the newspapers as a strong candidate for prime minister, there is reason to suspect that he was removed from the Serbian government in order to keep him far from the public eye, which would make it easier to cover up the accident itself, as well as the case at the Prosecutor’s Office. Of course, had this been a well-regulated state, and it is not, Minister Nedimović would have addressed the public and told openly what had happened (and what could easily happen to any driver), instead of choosing to hide behind his party’s levers of power.
Finally, we contacted the Third OJT officially. We didn’t receive the detailed answers we expected to several questions we sent to the Prosecutor’s Office. However, we received the information that the deferred prosecution i.e. the principle of opportunity was applied. This one concrete action of the Prosecutor’s Office after one and a half years was initiated at about the same time as our first steps in the investigation into Nedimović’s case – in January this year.
In its reply, the Prosecutor’s Office states that the minister was responsible for the traffic accident and that the motorcyclist sustained severe injuries. Instead of clarifying why the case has been KTR for so long, why no investigation has been initiated, and how long does it take from processing data to initiating investigation and pressing charges in other traffic accident cases, we received the answer that the criminal prosecution is deferred and that the victim has agreed to it.
“On January 12 the injured party R. G. stated that the driver of the passenger vehicle compensated him for the damage, that he does not join the criminal prosecution and does not make any property or legal claims, as well as that he agrees for the institute of deferred criminal prosecution to be applied to the driver of the passenger vehicle... on January 16 the suspect N. B. was served with an order to defer criminal prosecution and the suspect immediately complied with that order,” the reply states.
We asked the prosecutor Vladimir Vukčević if that is standard practice. He says that, when it comes to grievous bodily harm, even if someone is given money it doesn’t change anything, adding that the injured usually take the money to survive, as they are unable to work.
- Opportunity is not the right solution. It is certainly not standard practice, especially when the consequences are so serious. That is not when you apply the institute of deferred criminal prosecution and the prosecutor who agreed to it went outside the law. They should be dismissed – says Vukčević.
We talked to two other currently active prosecutors, who asked that we don’t state their names publicly. They gave us nearly identical answers, summed up here:
- When the bodily injuries were severe, especially if the injured person’s life was threatened, even if the act is qualified as negligent, you don’t apply the principle of opportunity but go to trial. Qualifying the act as negligent (punishable by four years in prison), which may be the case here, does not change anything and does not go in favor of the opportunity principle, because the bodily injuries were severe.
For that reason, we sent new questions to the Third OJT and asked why the Prosecutor’s Office waited one and a half years to take the statement from the injured party, but also, why they waited until January 2024. Finally, why was the principle of opportunity applied in this case when it is not applied to grievous bodily harm in traffic accidents. We did not receive answers to these questions before this issue of NIN was concluded.
Even if we were naïve to believe that after such a long time the Prosecutor’s Office suddenly decided to act, a question arises – when did the injured G. R. receive the money, in what way, and how much time has passed between then and the call from the Prosecutor’s Office?
When asked when he was compensated for the damages, G. R. told NIN:
- Nobody compensated me for the damage. Except him, because I asked the man to help me. I asked him if he could help me financially, because I hadn’t been working for nine months. He said “yes, yes I can”. But he hadn’t given me anything until I asked him. There was a friend of his, who came to see me.. I feel a little bad that he hadn’t thought to do it himself, but in the end he showed respect for me so what’s done is done. You can’t leave me bed-ridden for nine months and say ‘no harm, no foul’. At least help me a little, to push through this financially – says the injured G. R.
When did you receive the money from Minister Nedimović? I won’t ask how much.
- I saw him a couple of months ago and he gave me [the money] and helped me with the treatment. He holds such a position that he can just dial a number and ask. I can no longer do the work I used to do... He showed respect for me, I said “I’m not asking you to support me, I had serious injuries, help me get back on my feet while I’m not working.”
How did you come to agree to the principle of opportunity?
I was summoned. They told me to come and give the official statement, so we can make the official record. I can never be paid for this because I came within an inch of losing my life. I took the money and everything else is empty talk, I cannot get my life back. I am full of rods and screws. And I told him back then: “I won’t sue you”. I said: “I’ve never sued anybody in my life...”.