You're reading: Serb ex-reformist minister accused of corruption

BELGRADE, Serbia — Prosecutors in Serbia on Saturday accused a senior opposition politician of corruption while he was a government minister. He rejected the allegations as politically motivated. 

Police attempted to detain former ecology minister Oliver Dulic early on Saturday, but he initially evoked parliamentary immunity. Dulic later held a press conference where he rejected the allegations and said he was revoking the immunity.

“The attempt to arrest me was not part of the fight against corruption but part of a crackdown on political opponents,” he said.

Dulic’s Democratic Party was in power in Serbia for four years before it was ousted by a nationalist coalition after a general election in May.

The prosecutor for organized crime said Dulic and two associates are suspected of abuse of position in the issuing permits to private companies as part of a government project. No further details were released.

Dulic — surrounded at the press conference by senior Democratic Party officials in a sign of support — declared that “I will prove I have never broken the law.”

“This is a political process meant to discredit the people from the Democratic Party,” Dulic added.

Serbia’s populist authorities have pledged to fight alleged widespread crime and corruption in the Balkan country.