Stefanovic: "There is not a shred of truth in Belivuk's statement"

Photo: Ministry of Defense/Jovo Mamula

Minister of Defense Nebojsa Stefanovic has reacted to media allegations about President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic having links with the clan of Veljko Belivuk.

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Stefanovic characterized these accusations as untrue.

"At the moment when the arrested hardened criminals are launching a bunch of shameless lies against President Vucic, some media take them seriously and link me to those murderers without any reason or evidence. If they have already correctly concluded that Veljko Belivuk's attacks on President Vucic are notorious lies of a murderer facing justice, how can they think that there is truth in his statements when it comes to me? And especially, how are they motivated to trust the leader of a criminal gang when he talks about anything?"

He added that there is no truth in Belivuk's statement.

"There is not a shred of truth in Belivuk's statement, and especially in the interpretations of that statement on the front pages of certain media, where my name is mentioned as someone whom the killers are allegedly defending. The investigation against Belivuk and his group started precisely at the time when I was the minister of the interior. So how can a hardened criminal, faced with irrefutable evidence of massacres, kidnappings and other monstrous crimes, be a credible source of information for anything and a yardstick to measure truth and justice? And that is exactly what is being done when some banal communication of his is leaked as proof of some alleged involvement of mine."

According to the minister, these are allegedly attempts to weaken Vucic politically.

"Make up your mind - either you believe Belivuk, and then join those who see a chance in his lies to politically weaken President Vucic, or do not believe a word he says, which is the only right thing to do. As far as I'm concerned, I've never met with or spoken on the phone with Belivuk, Miljkovic, or anyone from that criminal organization. It's senseless to be constructing non-existent scandals involving President Vucic and me for the umpteenth time. And that's all the more despicable at a time when attacks on President Vucic are surpassing all previous lies, and there were many of them and all of them got immediately exposed. No one should defend President Vucic from me, or the two of us from the truth, least of all a mass murderer who is clutching at straws to save himself using monstrous lies," Stefanovic said in a statement, and added:

"I know very well that President Vucic has no need to send me any messages via the media, or through party colleagues, and that is why none of the initiators will benefit from such front pages by attacking me. Both President Vucic and I know very well that a single message from him to step down is enough, if he thinks that anything that has been published about me in the media so far is true and that individuals from our party may be talking about me, and I will act immediately on his decision. Our relationship is utterly open and honest, just like the first day he brought me into politics, and that will never change."

(Telegraf.rs)