FORMER GENDARME CHIEF IN MONTENEGRO WAS ACCUSED OF COUP D'ETAT, Bratislav Dikić is now a manager at 'Srbijašume'

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Former head of the Gendarmerie of Serbia and retired general Bratislav Dikić has been appointed head of the Forest Management in Niš, according to the website of the Public Enterprise "Srbijašume".

The information was published by the portal Insajder.net, which reminds that Dikić was previously appointed Assistant General Director at JP "Srbijašume" in 2021.

Dikić was among those arrested and tried for an attempted coup d'état in Montenegro in 2016, writes Radio Free Europe

RSE confirmed that Dikić is the head of the Forest Management "Niš" on the company's website.

According to official information, the Forest Management "Niš" includes seven protected areas, three hunting grounds, and three fishing areas on a total area of nearly 56,000 hectares.

As Insajder reminds, directors of forest managements manage forest areas that are formed at the level of forest regions and represent profit centers, and their organizational structure consists of services.

They are elected and appointed by the management of the company "Srbijašume".

An analysis of data from the company's website shows that all other directors of forest managements are either forestry engineers or have master's degrees in forestry, while no title is listed for Dikić.

In October 2016, Dikić was among 16 people arrested in Montenegro on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks across the country on the day of the Montenegrin parliamentary elections.

In May 2019, he was sentenced to a unified prison term of eight years by the High Court in Podgorica for the criminal offenses of "attempted terrorism by aiding and abetting and creating a criminal organization".

However, the Appellate Court of Montenegro overturned the verdict after an appeal in February 2021, and Dikić soon returned to Serbia.

Dikić headed the Gendarmerie from 2009 to July 2013. Previously, he headed the Niš detachment of that unit. Before joining the Gendarmerie, he was a member of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit for 10 years.

He was dismissed from the position of Gendarmerie commander after media reports that he was involved in organized crime and extortion, and that the Internal Control Sector and the Prosecutor's Office had initiated pre-investigation and investigation proceedings against him.

The immediate reason for his dismissal was the arrest of a Gendarmerie member on suspicion of murdering and burning two people near Jagodina.

After being dismissed from the head of the Gendarmerie, Dikić was transferred to the position of assistant to the then Police Director Milorad Veljković, who initiated the procedure for his dismissal.

He was retired at the end of 2015, at his own request, due to illness, and provided the public with confirmations from courts and the prosecutor's office that no criminal proceedings were or had been conducted against him.