Serbia's criminal police chief Marko Krcak arrested after the elections

Arrest after the elections

The head of Serbia's Criminal Police Directorate, Marko Krcak, has been arrested and charged with abuse of office, state media reported on Sunday, November 1. According to Deutsche Welle, the 42-year-old Krcak is accused of suppressing and manipulating the investigation into the murder of an alleged underworld figure, which took place in May at a restaurant in Belgrade.

Who is Marko Krcak

Before joining the police, Krcak worked as a car salesman, was later recruited into the Security and Information Agency (BIA), and was considered a loyal supporter of Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). In July 2023, he was appointed commander of the police personal protection unit (JZO). It was in this post, according to the outlet, that he allegedly personally directed the abduction of a group of university students, with one female student, according to the accusations, beaten and threatened with rape in the basement of a government building in Belgrade. In late 2025, he took charge of Serbia's criminal police.

Election context and the authorities' position

Krcak was considered a supporter of the defeated president Aleksandar Vucic, whose right-wing populist camp lost to the opposition 'Student List' in the parliamentary elections on October 25. Student groups also accused him of 'brutality' in dispersing peaceful anti-Vucic demonstrations, and the removal of Krcak and other Vucic loyalists from the police and intelligence services was one of the demands of the student leaders. Nevertheless, Belgrade's chief prosecutor Nenad Stefanovic rejected any link between the arrest and these demands: 'This arrest is not connected to... the result of the parliamentary elections,' he told journalists. Deutsche Welle notes that the arrest of a senior police officer considered close to the former regime is seen as an example of the gradual erosion of the pillars of Vucic's system.