Category: Violence against citizens
Period: from 6 Dec 2022
Outcome: No one investigated (as of 24 Oct 2023)
In June 2023, MP Đorđe Miketić played a recording of a phone call in which the owner of the "Košnica" restaurant, Ljiljana Đokić, and her children are threatened. Both he and she say the voice belongs to Belgrade mayor Aleksandar Šapić. In October he also presented a court-appointed expert's report on a possible identification of the voice. Šapić denies making threats. According to minister Bratislav Gašić, the Interior Ministry referred the case to the Second Basic Public Prosecutor's Office; what the prosecutor's office has done has not been made public.
On 30 June 2023, outside the City Assembly, Đorđe Miketić played a recording in which a voice strongly resembling the mayor's says: "You are in danger. And the children.... You asked for this yourself". He called on Šapić to say whether it was his voice.
The restaurant's owner, Ljiljana Đokić, says she received the call on 6 December 2022 and that the voice on the recording is the mayor's.
On 25 October 2023, outside the National Assembly, Miketić and Đokić presented a forensic report by a certified court expert. According to Miketić, the report confirms a possible positive forensic identification of the voice on the recording as Šapić's.
He called on prosecutors to question Šapić. Đokić said there was no longer any excuse for the authorities not to do their job.
According to Nova, Šapić said it was not true that he had threatened the owner of "Košnica" and that he never threatens anyone. Miketić replied that he had not said whether the voice on the recording was his.
As of 4 July, Nova reported, Šapić had neither confirmed nor denied the threats.
Bratislav Gašić told the Assembly on 24 October 2023 that the Interior Ministry had referred the case to the Second Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade for action.
Đokić says the authorities had not responded before that, and that after she reported the threat she was subjected to indirect threats. The sources we have read contain no decision by the prosecutor's office.
According to Nova, the "Košnica" restaurant burned down in 2021 in suspicious circumstances and, after being rebuilt, was demolished on the orders of the Building Inspectorate in November 2022. Đokić says she never met Šapić in person, that she had the support of his office while he ran Novi Beograd, and that she lost it when he became mayor.