Four people, including the uncle of basketball player Nikola Jokić, arrested is in Novi Sad for abuse of official position, he announced MUP.
I. P, SJ and NM were arrested and detained for up to 48 hours, while suspect VN was not detained due to health reasons.
Jokić is the former director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Novi Sad.
Why were they arrested?
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has now announced that due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that she committed criminal acts of abuse of official position in assisting, money laundering, abuse in connection with public procurement, tax evasion, tax fraud in connection with value added tax and falsification of official documents, the police arrested the person in charge of the business company "Prima idea doo" IP (45), while SJ (57), the former person in charge of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Novi Sad, is charged with an extended criminal offense abuse of official position and trading in influence.
Jokić was previously on the list of persons to be arrested as part of the investigation into the fall of the canopy at the Railway Station in Novi Sad in August 2025. The Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime then ordered the police to detain several persons in the investigation of the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad, including Jokić.
In addition to Jokić and I.P, the police also arrested NM (49), the responsible person of the "Novi Sad 2021 - European Capital of Culture" Foundation, due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that he had committed a criminal act of deliberate work in the service, and a criminal complaint will be filed against the officer of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the City of Novi Sad, VN (58) due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that he had committed an extended criminal offense of abuse of office.
As is suspected, SJ together with VN carried out 14 public procurement procedures, with a total contract value of 271.026.493 dinars, in which, according to a previous agreement, they awarded public procurement contracts to the company "Prima idea doo", whose responsible person is IP, knowing that the works that are the subject of public procurement will not be fully executed by that company.
It is suspected that for this purpose, they adjusted the conditions for this company and accepted the offers submitted by the company, even though the conditions for this were not met.
It is suspected that the IP assisted in the execution of the mentioned criminal acts by submitting offers with false documentation, and after the payments were made, by transferring them to personal accounts, withdrawing cash and converting funds, she laundered illegally acquired funds in the amount of more than 300.000.000 dinars.
With the aforementioned actions, it is suspected that she avoided paying taxes in the amount of more than 20.000.000 dinars.
NM is suspected of having facilitated the unjustified payment of funds to the same business company in the amount of more than 10.000.000 dinars through negligent performance of his duties.
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