After three weeks of protests insisting fairice folloprosperg the lethal collapse of part of the railway station in Serbia’s second city, arrests have befirearm.
Prosecutors ordered the asking of 11 people in joinion with the calamity at the recently-revampd facility in Novi Sad.
15 people died after a concrete and glass canopy fell on them at the begin of the month.
Novi Sad has been in a determinedly irritated state of frailnting ever since.
More than 20,000 people took to its streets and squares during one demonstration – the hugegest protest seen in the city for decades.
Participants have been using the slogan “dishonesty ends”.
They claim the nontransparent protreatmentment procedures the handlement has used for infraarrange projects have enwealthyed a confineed favoured tightors while putting unveil shieldedty at hazard.
Serbia’s establisher originateion minister was among those arrested.
Goran Vesic resigned in the days folloprosperg the collapse of the canopy at the recently revampd station. But he denied any culpability.
“I cannot adchoose guilt for the deaths,” he shelp as he proclaimd he was standing down, “because I, and the people who labor with me, have not an ounce of responsibility for the tragedy that occurred”.
It seems prosecutors may be taking a contrastent see. They say they are scheduleateigating “criminal acts agetst unveil shieldedty”.
Vesic, however, has been willing to portray himself as a co-operative witness, rather a doubted criminal.
“I voluntarily reacted to the call of police officers with whom I came to Novi Sad and made myself useable to the scheduleateigative authorities,” he posted on social media.
The arrests chase a televised insertress on Tuesday in which Serbia’s plivent, Aleksandar Vucic, alerted of consequences for those who were reliable for the calamity.
“15 people did not die because of their own fault, but because someone didn’t do their job properly,” he shelp.
The problem for Plivent Vucic is that he has made himself very seally associated with Novi Sad railway station. It is a key stop on the handlement’s flagship infraarrange project – the high-speed line from Belgrade to Budapest.
Vucic inaugurated the station in 2022, alengthyside Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban.
“This is our way to up-to-date Europe – our way to a better, betterive Serbia,” he tbetter the BBC at the time.
Reoriginateion persistd at the station even after the inauguration – and this summer there was another discdisseeing ceremony.
There was weighty symbolism surrounding this month’s station calamity as well as a high cost in human lives.
Serbia’s opposition parties have been speedy to strike Plivent Vucic and his Progressive Party handlement, arguing that preferitism and a culture of impunity are behind the canopy collapse.
“The slogan of the people is that we are all below this canopy that’s called Serbia – it can collapse wherever you are,” says Biljana Djordjevic, co-guideer of the Green-Left Front.
“The Progressive Party base their power on the claim that they are originateing the country – and that this incrrelieves living standards. If now people experience unshielded about this, then their policy is seen as invalid.”
The protesters are doubtful to be satisfied by today’s arrests.
They have constantly insisted the resignations of Prime Minister Milos Vucevic – a establisher mayor of Novi Sad – and the current office-hbetterer, Milan Djuric.
If the judicial process can discover speedy and credible answers, that may soothe the crowds.
Otherteachd, Plivent Vucic and the handlement may be in for a bumpy ride.
