Dijana Hrkalovic

Serbian Defence Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic on Tuesday denied having committed "any criminal act and especially I am not someone who is a conspirator against President [Aleksandar] Vucic" after a former colleague accused him of gaining access to transcripts of covertly recorded phone calls involving Vucic.

Officials from Serbia's ruling Serbian Progressive Party on Monday called for an investigation into Defence Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic after a former Interior Ministry official, Dijana Hrkalovic, who is currently on trial for alleged influence-peddling, accused him of gaining access to transcripts of covertly-recorded phonecalls involving President Aleksandar Vucic.

The arrest last Friday in Serbia of Dijana Hrkalovic, a former state secretary at the Interior Ministry, who has been linked to a notorious crime gang, the "Janjicari", is politically motivated, and she is being used as a scapegoat, Sead Spahovic, her lawyer, told BIRN.

The group arrested on February 4 is suspected of monstrous assassinations, racketeering and drug dealing.

Its leaders, Belivuk and Marko Miljkovic, were also leaders of a group of Partizan football club fans. A sniper and other weapons were found on the premises of those so-called "fans" used at the Partizan stadium.

Serbian journalists on Monday took their protest against the country's Defence Minister to the doors of the government, and, under the slogan "Journalists do not kneel", repeated their demand that Prime Minster Aleksandar Vucic sack Branislav Gasic for making a sexist remark to a reporter.

The criminal charge of abuse of office and trading in influence published by the Independent Association of Journalist of Serbia, NUNS, on Monday details the unnamed interior ministry employee's allegations against Stefanovic and the secretary of the Criminal Police, Dijana Hrkalovic.

Vukasin Obradovic, the president of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia, NUNS, said on Monday that he wanted to find out how the interior minister knew what was said during a private conversation he had with a police officer who has also filed a criminal charge against Stefanovic.