Category: Above the law
Period: from 18 Apr 2025
Outcome: Indictment filed (as of 22 Sep 2025)
On 18 April 2025, a Mercedes belonging to the Party of Justice and Reconciliation of minister Usame Zukorlić veered off the road while overtaking a line of vehicles in Mur near Novi Pazar and hit an underage pedestrian, who suffered multiple fractures and head injuries. According to Sandžak Danas, the driver was detained and soon released, and the prosecutor's office charged him only after footage of the crash was published; the SPP denies that the car was part of Zukorlić's escort. According to the same portal, an indictment against the driver was filed in September 2025, and what happened to the case after that has not been made public.
In the village of Mur near Novi Pazar, at around 19h on 18 April 2025, a Mercedes belonging to the Justice and Reconciliation Party (SPP), the party of minister without portfolio Usame Zukorlić, veered off the road while overtaking a column of vehicles and hit an underage pedestrian standing on a widened stretch of the road.
The boy suffered multiple fractures and head injuries and underwent surgery twice. The car was driven by a 22-year-old man from Tutin.
According to Sandžak Danas, the driver was detained and soon released, and the case was not referred to prosecutors; the police said nothing for two days. Citing unofficial sources, the same outlet reported that the car had been part of Zukorlić's escort. The SPP denied this, saying a party driver had lent the car to a third party without permission.
Only after footage of the crash was published did the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Pazar announce on 22 April that the driver had been charged with a serious offence against public traffic safety and ordered held for up to 48 hours.
Zukorlić confirmed that an official car of his ministry had also been in the column, but said he himself had not been in any of the cars; he said he had hired “those guys”, that he was not running from responsibility and that his resignation was “always on the table”.
The injured boy's father says no one from the party has called him. Residents of Mur blocked the road towards Montenegro three Fridays in a row.
According to Sandžak Danas, the prosecutor's office indicted the driver on 22 September 2025 for a serious offence against public traffic safety. What has happened in the proceedings since has not been made public.
In August 2025, an SPP Audi Q7 with expired registration, belonging to the SPP, hit a traffic police vehicle in central Novi Pazar; according to unofficial information from local media, it was being driven by Zukorlić, who left before the on-site investigation was over.
On Facebook he admitted to a traffic violation, wrote that he “never runs away” and said his driving licence had expired three years earlier. The police made no statement on the matter.