Newly revealed photos depict a friendly restaurant meeting between the influential brother of Serbia’s president and a notorious northern Kosovo underworld figure.

The Appellate Court in Belgrade upheld a verdict ordering former mayor and current Minister of Finance Sinisa Mali to return illegally acquired land back to the government, KRIK reported Thursday. 

Petar Panic, also known as “Pana,” is a one-eyed Serbian mobster with a rich criminal history and friends in the right places.

Panic once served as a bodyguard for Vojislav Seselj, the leader of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party, who was recently convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes against humanity.

A new investigation by KRIK, a partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) shows the extent of Panic’s ties to Serbia’s powerful and controversial Minister of Health, Zlatibor Loncar.

Credit: Edin Pasovic, OCCRP

The official photos of the May 31 inauguration of Aleksandar Vucic present an idyllic scene  --  for good reason.

Even as Serbia’s new president pledged to do his utmost to preserve “human and minorities’ rights and freedoms,” men outside the building were forcefully removing inconvenient protesters and journalists.

Young men assault anti-Vucic protesters during the new Serbian president's inauguration ceremony on May 31. (Photo: E-stock.us/Aleksandar Bačlija)

Belgrade's High Court (Photo: Milica Stojanovic)

On the early morning of Dec. 12, 2012, police came to the home of Miroslav Miskovic, one of Serbia’s most prominent businessmen, and escorted him into a car as cameras rolled. In no time, his arrest on allegations of corruption that cost the state €33 million (US$ 34.47 million) was breaking news on every Serbian television station and web portal.

On the night of Oct. 13, 2016, Aleksandar Stankovic’s car pulled toward an intersection in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, sliding to a halt beside a darkened BMW where two men sat inside unseen, cradling automatic weapons.

FK Partizan supporters light flares in the stands during a match in Belgrade (Photo: Aubrey Belford)

Angry over not being named director of a public company, a coalition partner of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic showed media this week a photo that fueled existing allegations that one of Vucic’s ministers was previously cooperating with organized crime figures.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleskandar Vucic has defended the country’s burgeoning arms exports to Saudi Arabia, in response to revelations that the country sold millions of dollars’ worth of arms that likely ended up with Syrian rebels.

Threats against independent journalists are fairly common in Serbia. But a recent barrage of online harassment against OCCRP partner the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK) – including death threats – raises serious concerns about the freedom of the press in the country.

A front page of Serbian tabloid Informer attacking KRIK

The mystery of who was behind April’s bizarre midnight demolition of buildings in Belgrade has been solved, according to Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic: top city officials gave the orders, but he’s sure they did it out of “pure” motives.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić and his family own seven properties worth more than € 1 million in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and recently sold an eighth.

Two contracts, published by the Serbian Center for Investigative Journalism (CINS) on Monday, illustrate how generous a Serbian government agency has been in providing financial aid to a local private TV channel mostly known for running reality shows, telenovelas and “American Idol”-type singing competitions. The highly popular, privately owned TV Pink, watched daily by millions of people in the Balkans, has also been a platform for government-friendly propaganda.

As citizens of Belgrade continue to ask why no authorities reacted to their calls for help in the night of April 25, when about 30 masked men armed with baseball bats tore up multiple buildings in Belgrade using diggers and mistreated several locals, the Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic denied allegations that the police officers were ordered to stand down that night, in an interview with N1 Television Thursday.

A Serbian tabloid has alleged that a respected journalism non-profit is attempting to overthrow the Serbian government, citing information that appears to have come from secret services, intelligence or surveillance.

The Serbian government has asked the Belgrade airport to forgive local carrier Air Serbia a debt of more than US$ 22 million, according to the Serbian Crime and Corruption Reporting Netork (KRIK). The debt constitutes all payments owed by the carrier to the airport for a one year period meaning the airline essentially used the airport for free for one year.