Eight Serbian police officers arrested after death of man tied to disappearance of Danka Ilić
Officers detained on suspicion of abusing Dalibor Dragijević; prosecutors say internal control ignored arrest orders.
Eight police officers in Serbia have been arrested on suspicions they abused and tortured Dalibor Dragijević, who died on April 7, 2024 while in the premises of the Bor Police Directorate. All suspects were placed in 48-hour custody.
Prosecutors say internal control failed to act
The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Niš said it had previously issued several arrest orders, but that those requests went unheeded by the Ministry. “The public prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Niš issued orders for the detention of all suspects for the stated criminal offenses in the previous period, but members of the Sector for Internal Control did not act on the prosecutor's orders.”
Dragijević had been arrested in April last year on suspicion that he helped his brother move the body of two-year-old Danka Ilić. Danka disappeared on March 26, 2024 in Banjsko Polje, where she had been with her mother and brother.
After a multi-day search, two employees of the local water utility, Srđan Janković and Dejan Dragijević, confessed on April 4 that they killed the child, saying they struck her with an official vehicle, put her in a car — where Dragijević allegedly delivered the fatal blow — and later dumped the body at a landfill. Months later they retracted their statements, claiming the confessions were extracted under torture. Two and a half years after she disappeared, it remains unknown where two-year-old Danka Ilić is.
Separately, Serbian police have opened an inquiry into nine other officers — current or former members of the unit responsible for guarding persons and facilities — who are suspected of torturing multiple people in the government garage. Those attacked reportedly took part in protests against former president Aleksandar Vučić.
Investigations are ongoing and prosecutors say further procedural steps are being prepared as the probe into the officers and the unresolved disappearance of Danka continues.
Photo: press material from the event
