The Third Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade and the Crime Suppression Service of the Criminal Police Administration arrested eight people, and issued warrants for two of them, due to the suspicion that they had committed the theft of state property, namely 43.000 medals of extremely high value from the right wing of the SIV building (Federal executive council, today the Palace of Serbia). This is how the statement of the prosecutor's office, published on Friday, March 15, read.
From the initials of the suspects (and their birth years), the name of former state secretary and Democratic Party official Slobodan Homen crystallized very quickly, and the focus of public and media attention is turning to him.
During that time, Homen, who is currently outside of Serbia, most likely in Dubai where he lives and works, advertises himself in an open letter claiming that he is "not on the run" nor that anyone is looking for him, that the whole case is politicized, and questions whether this is actually diverting the public's attention from some ongoing court process. And so, while the media circle around Homen tightens in the days after the disclosure of information about the alleged robbery, doubts about the robbery itself begin to be re-examined and crystallized.
GUESSES
Basically, when you look at everything that has been published and communicated to the public so far, most of the claims on the air are speculative in nature.
To begin with, there is conflicting information on exactly when the robbery took place. "Blic", referring to its sources, wrote that the robbery took place in 2007, while "Kurir" mentions the period from 2010 to 2018.
According to the newspaper "Kurir", since 559, office 2008 has housed 493 boxes and 541 tubes with decorations. "Nova rs" wrote, referring to official information, that in 2008 access to the room was allowed for a year "without supervision and without authorization", so that the following year one of the chests would be sealed in the presence of Slobodan Homen. Furthermore, it is stated that in 2010, some of the suspects, allegedly on Homen's verbal order, took over one of the chests and returned it after a few months with a "damaged wax seal and string".
The lack of decoration was allegedly noticed in the Ministry of Justice, when Nikola Selaković was at its head. He became the Minister of Justice for the first time in 2012, in order to receive the same position again in extraordinary elections two years later, and held it until 2016. He became the Minister for Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs in 2022. By the way, this ministry is located in the right wing of the SIV building, from where the medal allegedly disappeared.
The information so far about when exactly it was determined that the decoration was missing is not completely clear. "Kurir" writes that the commission only determined in 2018 that the decoration was missing, but Selaković was not the Minister of Justice at that time. On the other hand, Blic, referring to its sources, claims that the disappearance was discovered a decade ago.
Furthermore, some media write that no precise records were kept about the decorations that were in the disputed rooms. This consequently raises the question of how it was retroactively listed when it no longer existed.
illogicalities
In the whole story, there are many more illogicalities than accurately established facts. In addition to the fact that the claims when the decoration disappeared are contradictory, it is not explained how it is possible to take out such a quantity of specimens from a building used by several ministries (among others, the Ministry of Internal Affairs) without anyone noticing.
Furthermore, the number itself is very debatable, and especially the fact that in one (according to some sources three) office, so many boxes are deposited, which can fit 43.000 pieces of decorations, together with smaller boxes in which they are packed.
However, this is only part of the illogicality. Heraldist Dragomir Acović tells "Vreme" that everything that has been published so far "is incomprehensible according to elementary logic", starting with the fact that it is "absolutely illogical" to mention the amount of 43.000 copies that are in a depot or office. The interlocutor says that even China, not Serbia, does not have so many orders, and therefore the main assumption is that it is an old order from socialist Yugoslavia.
He adds that from 1998 to 2008, more than 4000 orders were not distributed, as well as that the orders awarded by individual ministries (for example, the Ministry of Defense) have no connection with this office, so copies could not even be found in the right wing of the SIV building .
On the other hand, although at first glance it seems that the stolen collection is worth a real fortune, in practice things are different. Acović explains that "the more something is put on the market, the more times its value decreases". When asked what can be done with such a quantity of decorations, the interlocutor says that he has no answer.
Especially since in most cases, he believes, it is not about specimens made of gold and silver. As he says, there were such orders made of precious metals with precious stones, but in small quantities. Also, they are mostly divided and are already in private collections.
photo: dragan kujundžić...
However, it is not clear what happened to the stolen decoration. If it had appeared on the market in the meantime, it would have been known. Acović explains that our market is small and that it is known exactly who deals with it, and that it is known within twenty-four hours when some good examples appear.
However, one collector explains to "Vreme" that although it is not known what was in the depot, it should be borne in mind that among the decorations awarded by the SFRY there were extremely valuable specimens. The interlocutor says that "in stock" there must have been gold, silver, platinum ornaments, and probably some specimens with precious stones that were not allocated.
As he adds, there was mention of the Order of the Partisan Star of the first degree, which is in gold, then the Order of the National Hero (first made in 24-carat and then 18-carat gold), as well as the most valuable - the Order of the Yugoslav Star. As he says, even if ninety percent is worthless, the depot probably contained some extremely expensive pieces.
As for the decoration from the period of the Kingdom of Serbia and Yugoslavia, it could not be in the SIV building, because the building in which it was located was destroyed during the bombing in the Second World War.
INVESTIGATION TEN YEARS LATER
From the moment when it was discovered that tens of thousands of orders were missing, until March 15, 2024, when the public learned about the robbery, almost a decade passed. However, the prosecutor's office and the police did not take action for years.
Homen's lawyer Nenad Konstantinović tells "Vreme" that he found out about the theft of the medal through the media, and that neither he nor his client received any official letter from the competent institutions. He adds that it is "incomprehensible" to him that the theft happened at all and that the public would have been informed by now.
When asked if his client's house was searched, Konstantinović says that it was, but that "nothing was found". He adds that in Homen's mother's apartment there is a collection of orders from his father, who he says was "the greatest collector" and that he owned examples from the monarchical period of Serbia, Montenegro and Yugoslavia, as well as orders from the SFRY and Republika Srpska.
At the time of writing this text, "Politika" writes, referring to allegations from the prosecution, that police officers searched the apartments of the suspects and found a large amount of decorations. Also, the prosecution proposes to issue a warrant for Homen. It is stated that the suspects are accused of having committed a criminal offense in the period from 2009 to 2018.
That the robbery took place is becoming increasingly clear after the steps taken by the police and the prosecutor's office, but there are still many unanswered questions.
Otporas, State Secretary, MP and lawyer
photo: nenad milosevic / tanjug...
Slobodan Homen was born in 1972. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade and practiced law until entering politics in 2007.
After student protests in 1996 and 1997, Otpor was founded, and Homen became one of the leaders of the movement, in charge of international cooperation. The media later stated that Otpor as an organization partly rented premises from the Homen family.
With the fall of Slobodan Milošević, Otpor lost its reason for existence, and its membership moved en masse to the Democratic Party. This was also Homen's path, and in 2001 some media wrote that he was the one who led the current that advocated for the organization to move into political waters.
He practiced law until 2007, when he left the profession and entered politics.
The very next year, he became the State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, and in 2011 he assumed the position of Government Coordinator for Public Relations. During his tenure as Secretary of State, the reform of the judiciary was initiated (in 2009), which ended disastrously.
He was a member of the Main Board of the DS and a member of parliament after the Serbian Progressive Party took power. He left the party in 2014. Then he moved to the Social Democratic Party; he was a deputy until 2016.
While he was in management positions, the media linked him to embezzlement and corruption related to companies owned by members of his family.
He was a member of the Commission for Secret Graves, which, among other things, was supposed to determine the location where Draža Mihailović was buried. On several occasions, it was pointed out that his maternal grandfather, also a lawyer, Slobodan Subotic, represented Mihajlović in the trial before the new Yugoslav authorities in 1946. However, although Subotić was involved in the trial against Mihajlović and others, he did not defend Mihajlović but Boško Pavlović, Radoj Knežević and Dr. Milan Gavrilović as a court-appointed defense attorney.
After the first mention of his name in the context of the robbery, Homen in his response to the public, among other things, asks the question "whether with his name and allegedly missing medal as a good media story, they are trying to divert interest from an ongoing, important, court process", as well as does it "have something to do with the formation of the future government"... or with some "organized criminal groups" that he resented when he was state secretary.
In the intercepted Sky conversations between the brothers Darko and Duško Šarić, it is said that "for Homen, they gave everything to Ed. He wears it at the Oscars. He has to see. That's what Edo says. The whole subject is with him. Since Homen entered the story with Prostrana from the SDPR. I am now. Nothing, they say about Homen that we will see what happens in 10-15 days. If by chance Oskar did not give the green light for us to file a private lawsuit".
Which Homen is being talked about has never been established, nor was anyone pointing the finger at Slobodan Homen until the beginning of this story about the looting of the order.
By his own admission, Homen is himself a collector of decorations, but, as he pointed out, those from the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
