Serbian President Vučić’s close ties to football fan clubs Partizan Belgrade and organized crime is revealed at his trial hooligan and cocaine dealer Veiko Belivuk.

At the trial, the prosecutor presented a video of the “House of Horrors” Belivuk in its suburbs Belgrade, where he tortured and killed his victims before dismembering their bodies, running their organs through a meat grinder and throwing them into the Danube. Although Belivuk has previously been prosecuted for various criminal offenses, he is said to have enjoyed cover at the highest levels of government, systematically avoiding justice.

Belivuk and members of his gang were photographed with President Vucic’s son Danilo. The accused alleges that his gang was organized at the behest and to meet the needs of Aleksandar Vučić, detailing some of the missions such as intimidating political opponents.

Although the Serbian President denies any connection to Belivuk, he continues to interfere in the case, threatening on television that the fugitive deputy leader of Belivuk should come out of hiding and confront him. “Let him come and kill me,” President Vucic said before continuing, “I’d rather die than let these bastards rule the world.” Serbia“. Belivuk, for his part, claims to have met with Vučić, who gave him specific orders and instructions.

However, not a single Serb doubts that Belivuk’s allegations of a government cover-up of the truth. The Belivuk case is reminiscent of the symbiotic relationship between Serbian criminal gangs and the Belgrade secret services, while causing concern among Europeans. Vučić’s European ambitions frighten many in the EU, who see Vučić’s populist nationalism as dangerous as Hungary’s Orban.

Much of the evidence against Belivuk and his co-conspirators comes from Europol’s transcripts of messages from the Sky-ECC app, favored by cocaine traffickers. In Vučić’s nine years in power, Serbian hooligans and the criminal organizations fueled by their ranks have played a role in every crisis, engaging in pro-Serb protests in northern Kosovo or insulting and intimidating subversive journalists.

Vučić hails from the world of Red Star fanatics, where a few years before the Yugoslav wars he met Vojislav Seselj, a leader of the Serbian far right who was later convicted in The Hague. Vučić was in the stands of a 1990 football match between Red Star and Dinamo Zagreb that ended in a street fight.

Belivuk’s immunity from the Serbian authorities is also explained by his friendship with the president’s eldest son, Danilo Vučić. Independent Serbian media recently published photos of Danilo hugging the defendant. President Vučić reacted strongly to the reports, accusing journalists of an immoral attack on his family. The president claims that Danilo, a distillery worker, is a private individual with no government powers. However, Danilo’s role was also political: two years ago, he welcomed a Serbian war criminal released from prison by Croatia. Danilo allegedly handed him an envelope with $30,000, the keys to an apartment in Belgrade, and a car.