PM addresses reports about "planned sabotage"

Source: B92

BELGRADE -- After security agency BIA warned him that his plane might be sabotaged, Ivica Dačić said this was "not the first time" that his security had been compromised.

Dačić addresses reproters last night at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport (Tanjug)

The prime minister, who also serves as interior minister, addressed reporters late on Thursday after returning from Ireland. He did not wish to say which criminal structures are suspected in the case, but stressed that "what is important is that the MUP and BIA did something coordinated":
"I will say it once again that this is the first time in the five years that I have been the police minister that BIA and MUP did something coordinated, that somebody told somebody 'let's do it together" and that is great progress. That's why I'm thankful to the BIA director, and of course, to my associates at the MUP."

As for the flight back from Dublin, Dačić said that he "spoke to pilots, who carried out an emergency check of the aircraft", and that he suggested that they should use it to fly back to Belgrade.

"We concluded, bearing in mind the volume of the state obligations that we all have in the coming period, and which Serbia's future will depend on, that it's simply impossible to change the regime of travel. That means we will continue with our regular activities and that the police and BIA will change the manner in which they secure the aircraft both in the country and abroad, and more attention will have to be paid to contacts with foreign police and security services."

According to him, "criminal groups cannot influence the work of the government":

"If criminal circles, or some assassins and saboteurs will determine our schedule, then we really cannot go very far. I have faith in our state organs that they are capable of realizing their state functions, and one of them is to protect top state officials."