Serbia's Judiciary Shifts Into High Gear After Students' List Landslide

Air Serbia flight JU134 from Belgrade to Moscow was already deep in Lithuanian airspace on November 3 when the crew was instructed to turn back to the Serbian capital. On board were three prominent figures from the era of former President Aleksandar Vucic: Aleksandar Vulin, a former defense and interior minister and ex-head of the Security Intelligence Agency, Dusan Bajatovic, the longtime director of state gas company Srbijagas, and minister without portfolio Nenad Popovic. All three are known in Serbia for their close ties to Moscow and for controversies that include allegations of corruption and abuse of office.

According to unofficial reports carried by several media outlets, the plane was recalled because of a security breach: Vulin had allegedly boarded without undergoing mandatory screening. Vulin has been under US sanctions since 2023 over what Washington called "engaging in corrupt and destabilizing activities that undermine the rule of law in the Western Balkans." Vulin told media he was traveling to Moscow to discuss extending a gas agreement with Russia, while Bajatovic said he did not know why Vulin and Popovic were on the trip and denied the pair would attend scheduled gas talks.

The episode might have remained an unusual footnote had it not come amid a sweeping political transformation. Nine days earlier, on October 25, the student-backed list won a landslide victory over the Serbian Progressive Party in parliamentary elections, ending 14 years of dominance by Vucic and the SNS, which maintained close relations with Moscow. Although the new majority has yet to take control of any levers of power, the days since the vote have brought arrests, new criminal proceedings and the reopening of long-unresolved cases at remarkable speed.

"This paints a sad picture of the Serbian prosecution service," prosecutor Bojana Savovic told DW, saying the sudden flurry of action looks like an attempt to curry favor with the incoming authorities. "With these actions, they are showing what they could have done but were unwilling to do until just ten days ago," she said, adding that she hopes the pace will not come "at the expense of the quality of indictments" and that the cases are not personal vendettas within the old regime.

Prosecutors have opened a series of investigations into suspected electoral manipulation, corruption and abuse of office. Four people were arrested on suspicion of vote-buying in Novi Sad, and six others were detained in Mali Zvornik on suspicion of helping citizens from Bosnia and Herzegovina register residence in Serbia so they could vote. In the highest-profile case, Alta Bank owner Davor Macura was arrested on suspicion of illegally accessing the bank's vault and removing the equivalent of about 383 million euros ($430 million), days after the National Bank of Serbia revoked Alta's license and started bankruptcy proceedings. Macura has been publicly associated with the SNS, and his bank had extensive dealings with the state and a large number of Russian clients. Senior police officials, the head of the Republic Hydrometeorological Institute and several public company managers have also been arrested over suspected abuses of office and rigged procurement.

Students and representatives of the new majority are demanding investigations into corruption cases left unresolved for years, insisting that no one is above the law. "When you want the rule of law and when you want something to be done, it is possible. Our regulations allow for it. But it was obvious that there were people obstructing the entire system, putting cases in drawers and leaving them unresolved," Tanja Arsic, an incoming MP from the Students' List, told DW. After the election, reports and video footage suggested official documents may have been removed or destroyed in state institutions and public companies. On October 29, Prosecutor General Zagorka Dolovac issued a binding instruction to all chief public prosecutors to prevent the destruction of records, and the Students' List urged employees in state institutions and the media to report any such destruction. Savovic noted that even an attempted destruction of official records is punishable by law.

Whether institutions will pursue those once at the very top of Serbia's power structures remains an open question. Former President Vucic has said he is not afraid of arrest and that no evidence of financial wrongdoing will be found against him. "I don't sign or do anything when it comes to money, and nothing can be found in that regard," he said. But accountability, observers note, is not only about who signed a document; it is also about who made decisions, gave orders and wielded real influence over the deals now under scrutiny. "It would be tragic if the biggest players, whose arrests are expected, were prosecuted without sufficient evidence. Or if they were charged with something far less serious than what they actually did," Arsic said.

Savovic argues the prosecution service will ultimately be judged not by the number of politically popular arrests but by final convictions and the permanent confiscation of assets acquired through crime. Arsic agrees that thorough investigations and robust evidence must take precedence over speed. "The prosecution must not bring indictments if there is not enough evidence. That would be disastrous," she said, warning that rushed cases ending in acquittals for former top officials would be even worse.

Savovic remains doubtful that such results are possible within existing structures. "For decades, people whose only qualification was blind obedience, reading the political climate and self-censorship were promoted in the prosecution service and the courts. Without fundamental changes in the judiciary, the police and the security structures, I see no possibility of a substantial and lasting transformation of society," she said. The real test will come in the courtroom, where verdicts will show whether Serbia is truly breaking with its old system of power or simply replacing one set of power brokers with another.