Serbia Police Launch Probe Into Wiretapping
By Bojana Barlovac
As a wiretapping affair shakes Serbia, police are set to investigate reports of alleged phone tapping of the President and First Deputy Prime Minister.
Milorad Veljovic, head of Serbian police, has announced that an investigation into the wiretapping of the President and First Deputy Prime Minister will begin on Monday.
“I will order an investigation into the reasons and motives of all those involved and the background of everything connected to the tapping of phones belonging to President Tomislav Nikolic and First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic,” Veljovic said on Friday.
This comes after the intelligence agency, BIA, informed Vucic that “a section of the Serbian police” had issued an order to wiretap phones of top state officials.
“We discovered that a group, on the orders of the Interior Ministry, wiretapped top state officials, including President Nikolic and myself,” Vucic said last Wednesday.
Ivica Dacic, Prime Minister and Interior Minister, has denied involvement in the case, saying that he “is not responsible for police operations”.
Dacic said that any police officials found responsible for the wiretapping will be dismissed, arrested and prosecuted.
“I have requested a report from the Police Directorate and the Interior Ministry and the prosecution are involved as well,” the Prime Minister noted.
The Ombudsman and public information commissioner have expressed concern over the wiretapping affair.
Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, on Friday described information about the tapping of top state officials as scandalous and demanded an explanation from the security services.
Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic warned on Friday that it was dangerous if the communications of the President and First Deputy Prime Minister could be intercepted.
