"No legal outcomes" to Serbia's wiretapping affairs

"No legal outcomes" to Serbia's wiretapping affairs

BELGRADE -- The issue of wiretapping of state officials has once again been brought up in Serbia, the Belgrade-based daily Danas writes on Friday.

On November 1, it was announced that members of the military security agency, VBA, found surveillance equipment in Belgrade's Crowne Plaza Hotel, owned by Miroslav Mišković.

According to Justice Minister Nikola Selaković the equipment was found in a room where Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić was to hold a meeting with representatives of the Trilateral Commission.

Selaković accused Mišković of being behind the incident, while Defense Minister Bratislav Gašić said the VBA would investigate and forward its findings to the prosecution.

Similar accusations were heard in the past, when President Tomislav Nikolić complained to the media he and Vučić were being wiretapped. Although that affair was given as one reason for the sacking of five heads of police directorates, no charges have been brought to date against anyone.

The daily spoke with people "from security structures" who noted that all these affairs had one thing in common - the absence of any sort of legal outcome. However, they disagree when asked why this is the case.

Faculty of Security professor Darko Trifunović says the reason why there has not been any definitive answer to who is wiretapping state officials is "the politicization of security services and the consequential drop in their professionalism."

"There's the drone affair, the cases when state officials' motorcades were intercepted, and nobody answered for that. Since politicians are installing their own people in the services, that has led to bad personnel...