Incident on highway involving president's motorcade

Source: Beta, Blic, Kurir

BELGRADE -- The Serbian president's cabinet has confirmed that an incident happened on a highway that involved an officer of the MUP and the president's motorcade.

Tomislav Nikolić (Beta, file)

The incident happened on Friday, on the Belgrade-Niš highway, while Tomislav Nikolić was traveling toward Kragujevac, Belgrade-based tabloid Kurir is reporting, citing "security structures".
The daily also published on its website that "a high ranking officer of the Interior Ministry (MUP) used his official car to run into the motorcade that was accompanying President Tomislav Nikolić, cutting in front of them several times."

Another Belgrade-based tabloid, Blic, identifies the officer in question as chief of the traffci police, Dragiša Simić, but says the car was "occupied by his driver" at the time. According to this report, the driver said that he did not attempt to overtake the motorcade, and that he was not signaled to slow down or keep his distance.

Nikolić addressed the incident to say that he had full confidence in the members of the MUP assigned to his security detail, the presidential press service said.

Nikolić is also confident that all aspects of the incident will be thoroughly investigated, the statement added, without giving any details concerning the incident.