Serbia’s “Senjak case” has morphed from a mafia-style hit into a full-blown crisis of confidence in the state: a missing body, elite police on the ground, and now senior officers under suspicion.

The night of May 12: a mafia rendezvous turns execution

On May 12, Aleksandar Nešović, known as Baja, a high‑ranking member of the Kekina group, arrived in a bulletproof BMW at Belgrade’s restaurant “27” in Senjak, reportedly at the invitation of former Belgrade police chief Veselin Milić, who allegedly asked him to come without bodyguards.¹ Inside, he sat with main suspect Saša Vuković, nicknamed Boske, and others before an argument allegedly ended in multiple shots that killed Nešović.¹ Forensic teams later found 9mm casings and a large amount of blood believed to be his.²

Cover‑up, acid and a missing corpse

Investigators say the body was moved in a “car of death” later found in Putinci, containing hydrochloric acid bottles, surgical gloves and a blood‑stained hood, pointing to an attempt to burn DNA traces.¹ Another outlet bluntly concludes: “Nešović’s murder was planned, no one carries acid in their car just like that.”³

The search for Nešović’s remains has since entered its third day, with police, Gendarmerie, SAJ, military police and the army combing Jarkovačko/Jarkovac Lake with boats, sonars and divers, while the area remains under blockade.¹⁴⁵ Investigators believe the lake “could hold the key secret to the crime,”⁶ and are also tracing cell‑tower data from Boske’s phone amid suspicions that remains were scattered across Srem villages.⁷

Ten suspects, luxury villas and a purged hierarchy

Pro‑government tabloids have splashed “exclusive” photos of Vuković, a former Interior Ministry officer now suspected of firing the fatal shots,⁸ and his lavish Senjak villa, just 400 meters from the crime scene, now under a financial probe into more than €2.5 million in assets.⁹ His wife Danka, accused of bringing the murder weapon, is in house arrest with an ankle monitor as prosecutors appeal for stricter custody.⁹

Ten people are formally under investigation for “heinous murder” and related crimes, including Vuković and an associate as alleged co‑killers, Danka for illegal weapons, four police officers for failing to report the crime and aiding the perpetrators, and two civilians for similar cover‑up roles.¹⁰

The scandal has already claimed a major scalp: former UKP deputy chief Nemanja Đuran was questioned “as a citizen” over his post‑crime contacts with Boske,¹¹ then promptly fired, as media heralded “firings begin in police over Nešović’s murder.”¹²

Government line: show of force, no “untouchables”

Police director Dragan Vasiljević insists the case, however damaging, will “show the strength of the system,” promising there will be “no protected, no untouchable” individuals, even if they are MUP or other security personnel.⁴ Pro‑government commentators frame the affair as a painful but necessary purge: “It’s time to draw a clear line and defend the professionalism of the service,” one analysis declares, warning that high‑ranking officers’ ties to criminal structures have dealt “a huge blow to the state’s reputation.”⁵

Media loyal to the government also stress that “police officers have never been allowed to do anything other than their own job,” signaling a tougher stance on moonlighting as private security for businessmen and gangsters.¹³

Opposition and legal perspective: the system is on trial

From the opposition‑leaning camp, veteran lawyer Branislav Tapušković undercuts any hope that a missing body might save the accused. It is “evident” Nešović was killed in the restaurant in front of several witnesses, he says; “if people saw that a man was shot, then it is clear there is enough evidence that a murder was committed.”¹⁰ The absence of a corpse “cannot be a problem” for the trial, he adds—if anything, it only “aggravates the responsibility of those who removed the body.”¹⁰

He also voices what many citizens are thinking: it is “simply unbelievable” that such an execution and cover‑up could happen “in the presence of a police commander” like then‑Belgrade force chief Veselin Milić.¹⁰

Human cost and political reckoning

Amid the manhunt, there is quiet tragedy: Nešović’s father reportedly died just two days into the search, the day news broke that his son had been killed, his heart “unable to bear” it.¹⁴

As President Aleksandar Vučić travels abroad and Brussels sends standard messages of support, domestic attention is locked on a muddy lake and a shattered badge. Pro‑government voices insist this is a cleansing moment that will prove only a “minority” of officers are compromised.⁵ Critics counter that when an execution can unfold in a chic Belgrade restaurant with senior police at the table, it is not just criminals in the dock—it is the entire security architecture of the state.