The U.S. authorities announced Wednesday they have targeted 16 individuals and 24 entities suspected of corruption and serious human rights abuses. The ruling freezes U.S. property and money connected to those people and entities.

Pro-government tabloids in Serbia launched on Friday a smear campaign against independent investigative outlet KRIK after it published transcripts from the prosecutor's questioning of the suspected leader of a brutal criminal group who claimed the country’s President Aleksandar Vucic repeatedly asked him for favors.

Serbia’s pro-government media launched a coordinated smear campaign against reporters of the investigative outlet KRIK on Tuesday, linking them to a recently arrested crime boss the same reporters investigated and determined to have frequently socialized with the president’s son.

After reporters again caught his son in company of alleged members of a drug trafficking clan, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić hinted on Friday that journalists were painting a target on his son’s forehead but that he will fight with all the strength he has and “defeat their lies.”

Following a tip from a reader, a reporter from OCCRP’s Serbian partnerKRIK managed on Wednesday evening to take a photo of the son of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in company with organized crime figures, adding proof to previous allegations about Danilo Vučić’s connections with the underworld.

Reacting to an investigation into criminal gangs, Serbian pro-government tabloids on Wednesday unleashed a barrage of coverage echoing statements from political leaders who accused journalists of targeting the president’s son on behalf of the opposition. 

A controversial businessman known as ‘Serbian Al Capone’ and considered the region’s top narco-boss died in a Belgrade hospital on Sunday after suffering from respiratory complications caused by COVID-19, Serbian investigative outletKRIK reported.

Journalists and political leaders on Wednesday criticized the Serbian government and said the United Arab Emirates (UAE) made a “mockery” of an international anti-corruption conference by deporting Serbian investigative journalist Stevan Dojcinovic before he could speak.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has ordered the country’s Military Security Agency (VBA) to open an investigation shortly after a video was released this week showing an alleged Russian spy bribing a Serbian identified as a “Serbian high-positioned agent,”Serbian media reported.

Iron-fisted rulers are undermining state institutions and freedom of expression in the Western Balkans claims a report published on Wednesday by human rights watchdog Freedom House.