Former Serbian Construction Minister Goran Vesić and ten others were arrested in connection with the collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad in early November, which killed 15 people and seriously injured two others.
The 1 November tragedy sparked mass protests in Serbia, where opposition leaders and citizens accused the government of corruption and negligence in overseeing public infrastructure projects. Demonstrators are demanding accountability for what many regard as a preventable disaster.
Novi Sad prosecutors confirmed the arrests, stating that the suspects faced a variety of charges. Four were accused of creating a public danger, which entailed prison sentences of up to 12 years. However, Vesić, who oversaw the reconstruction of the railway station during his tenure, denied his official arrest.
I voluntarily appeared before investigators to help clarify all circumstances of the Novi Sad incident.
Among those arrested were engineers from the French company Egis, which led the reconstruction, and employees of CIP Traffic Institute, the station’s design firm, as well as the chief designer of the facility, Ljiljana Milić Marković.
The reconstruction of the railway station began in 2021 and ended in 2022 during the election campaign. Additional works on the project, advertised as meeting “European standards,” continued until July 2024.
The accident led to the resignation of acting director of Serbian railway infrastructure Jelena Tanasković and Trade Minister Tomislav Momirović, who previously headed the Ministry of Construction.
The arrests and investigations marked a step towards fulfilling public demands for accountability.
