The Serbian security services are serving ruling politicians instead of vital national interests, former Military Security Agency chief Momir Stojanovic told Belgrade daily Danas.

“Those services have been instrumentalized and are completely out of democratic control,” he warned adding that he would not be surprised if the intelligence services had compromising recordings of opponents of the ruling politicians.  

According to Stojanovic, part of the problem lies in the fact that the intelligence sector is in pieces with every minister having their own service.  

He said that Special Investigations Section of the Criminal Police Department (UKP) leads the pack in terms of political abuse of its powers and jurisdiction. “They monitor political opponents and critics of the regime, including their communication and use blackmail… All the compromising material that tabloids have published came from them,” Stojanovic said. “This is a very dangerous organization” which is doing everything but fighting organized crime, he added.  

UKP chief Dejan Kovacevic reacted to Stojanovic’s words calling them scandalous, tendentious and untrue and aimed at discrediting the UKP. Kovacevic said the Special Investigations Section collects evidence in line with positive regulations. “No investigative operations can be done with an order from the courts and only if the conditions set by law are met,” he said in a written statement.

Kovacevic said that wire-tapping is done under court orders by the Security Information Agency (BIA) because the UKP does not have the equipment for “secret overseeing of communications” and only when there is no other way to collect evidence.