Heads and limbs were cut off, and big men were photographed smiling beside them. No, this is not another video of a terrorist group such as Islamic State, which has become famous for its bloody cruelty.
These are photos of a Serbian criminal group linked to one of Belgrade’s Partizan fan factions, which were broadcast on one of Serbia’s national televisions, personally provided by the country’s interior minister, Aleksandar Vulin.
It seems really strange for Vulin to provide such bloody and grotesque photos to be broadcast, but if one looks beyond the photos themselves and tries to piece together all the pieces of the Serbian crime puzzle, one will get a picture that brings together sports, political interests, drugs, assassinations and power struggles at the highest level.
The main connecting factor in this picture is called Velko Belivuk – a torturer of the criminal group “Principles”, posing mostly as a faction of Partizan fans (Belgrade). He is the smiling man in the photos with corpses broadcast on the pro-government Pink TV.
Their broadcast came last weekend, days before the Crime and Corruption Investigation Network (KRIK) released a leaked transcript of Belivuk’s testimony as part of a trial set to begin in early August.
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“I decided to say good things about my relationship with Serbian President Alexander Vucic, Police Minister Alexander Vulin, Vucic’s brother, friends, godparents and all the other politicians who asked us for services and now pretend we don’t know each other and they are washing their hands of us, “Belivuk told investigators, and his words were quoted in the media by KRIK.
The hooligan torturer, known by his nickname Velya Nevolya (Velyo Bedata), was arrested in early February this year on charges of kidnapping, murder of a particularly cruel nature, torture and drug distribution.
In addition to Belivuk, 16 other people were arrested then, all well known to the authorities. Some of them are active in the football propaganda of the two big Serbian giants – “Partizan” and “Red Star”, but others come from clans from the criminal world of the country. Numerous searches were carried out, including at the stadiums of the two football teams, and after all the searches, numerous weapons, cash and solid quantities of drugs were found.
At the time, media close to the Serbian government reported that Belivuk and his men were plotting to assassinate President Aleksandar Vucic. Days before the arrests on February 4th, more than 850 special forces guards the square, where the head of state will deliver a speech at the unveiling ceremony of a monument to the founder of the medieval Serbian state, Stefan Nemanja, in Belgrade.
Following the arrests, Interior Minister Vulin said it was “the strongest criminal group in the Zemun clan”, whose members are responsible, among other things, for the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.
Authorities later confirmed that the large-scale security was due to concerns about an assassination attempt planned by Velya Nevolya.
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Velko Belivuk, known by his nickname “Velya Nevolya” or “Velo Bedata”
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After months in custody, the gangster testified in early June in a case expected to go to court in August. And these testimonies again bring it as central news in the media.
KIRK’s transcript of Belivuk’s July 5 testimony speaks of close ties between his organization (which he denies is criminal, although he himself tells of crimes) and senior government officials, including President Vucic and Interior Minister Vulin ( the same, who took the photos of people killed by Vela Nevolja), the president’s brother and people from the top circle of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SPP).
During interrogation, Velko Belivuk denied involvement in any killings, but willingly told investigators about “services” he had provided at the request of the president and his associates.
These services include control over Partizan’s propaganda so that they do not chant insults and attacks on Vucic during matches. There are several such cases in which Velya Nevolya’s agitator fights with other Partizan fans when insults are heard against the president in the agitator. An example of this is a basketball match from the beginning of 2016, for which Vreme magazine writes that the fans of the Belgrade team got into a fight after some of them pulled out an insulting banner for Vucic.
The people from the Principles organization were also, again at the request of the SPP leadership, used to exert pressure and intimidation on the organizers of the anti-government protests in the country last summer.
Belivuk claims he was again in favor of the authorities during the Pride in Belgrade, preventing football hooligans from attacking the march.
Similar services were provided during the 2019 taxi drivers’ protest against the “Car: Go” application – something like a Serbian version of UBER on the grounds that it is a “friendly company” for the government.
According to KIRK, the company in question is Croatian, and according to the transcript, Belivuk angrily asked during the interrogation how an “Ustasha” (that’s what Serbs call Croats) company could be friendly to Serbs.
One of the more interesting services that Vucic allegedly asked of Vela Nevolja was to stop the raising of an insulting banner by the Partizan audience against the daughter of Zvezdan Terzic, director of the Red Star football club, during the match. between the two grands.
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“We did it, and then Terzic invited me to thank me and ask how much it cost him. I told him it was done as a favor and that it couldn’t cost anything to friends,” Belivuk told investigators.
According to him, the main connection with the President of Serbia was through Alexander Vidojevic – one of the prominent fans of “Partizan” and a good friend of Vucic’s son – Danilo. Vidojevic is a member of the Janichari football campaign, and is known to be part of one of the most powerful mafia groups in Montenegro, the Kavacki clan. He and Danilo Vucic were photographed together in a Belgrade café in June 2020, sparking a wave of outrage in Serbia, as well as allegations that the mafia was influencing Serbian authorities.
Belivuk himself also has quite solid friendships. One of them is with the police officer from the gendarmerie Nenad Vuckovic – Vucko. It is alleged that the two went shooting together, and in 2016 the cameras of journalists filmed them enjoying together in the agitation of “Partizan” during a basketball match.
Vuckovic is believed to be Principles’ link to Goran Papic, a former deputy head of Serbia’s Organized Crime Service.
Belivuk also claims to have had contacts with Darko Glisic, a senior member of Vucic’s Progressive Party, while one member of his group had contacts with Police Minister Alexander Vulin.
The prosecutor’s office is investigating certain connections that Belivuk and his associates had in the police, KIRK writes.
Hours after the KIRK transcript was released, Glisic, who holds the position of chairman of the Progressive Party’s executive council, said Belivuk’s testimony was a lie. His allegations were also denied by Car: Go.
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President Aleksandar Vucic himself also took a stand on the issue. He denied ever seeing, meeting or even talking to members of Velko Belivuk’s criminal group, adding that he was ready to talk about it in front of all the competent authorities and even publicly undergo a lie detector.
He declined to comment on details of the case, as the investigation against Belivuk continues, but stressed that new revelations about the hooligan’s political connections are coming soon.
“It makes sense that when the indictment starts to tighten up, when evidence accumulates, criminals start looking for ways to escape politically. They attacked me, eavesdropped on me, said I had saved my alleged lovers from court. They also said that I had relationships with men … But these are trifles … I will show people the truth and we will defeat the killers and their helpers “, Vucic was categorical.
“I have never seen Belivuk or his people, never and nowhere. I will show everything in the coming days, it will be interesting. If I have seen or talked to them somewhere, anytime and anywhere, I am ready to go behind bars for life and to you pay in prison, “Vucic told reporters.
The clouds for Velko Belivuk are really thickening during the investigation. His group has been linked to the disappearances of a number of people over the past two years, believed to have been killed in clashes between local criminal groups.
The photos taken by Minister Alexander Vulin come from the mobile phones of the people from the Belivuk group, and he himself is present at some of them. According to Vulin, all the killings took place in a house in Ritopek, near Belgrade, owned by one of Tartar’s relatives.
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The case provoked a wide response and sharp reactions from opposition politicians. Former Serbian President and New Democratic Party leader Boris Tadic told the opposition Danas that it was clear from Vucic’s election as president that “the regime uses agitators and football hooligans as its paramilitary units”.
“Even today, if the prosecutor in the case has a bit of professional credibility, he should start hearing President Vucic in these circumstances, but in a raped state governed by the rule of law, the urgent re-election of Zagorka Dolovac (Serbia’s chief prosecutor) for a third term is more important, “Tadic added.
According to Milan Veruovic, a former bodyguard to assassinated Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, “there is no organized crime without co-operation with the state, and this was confirmed by the testimony of Velko Belivuk”.
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