Serbian authorities arrested 11 people, including a former minister, on Thursday as part of a probe into a train station accident that killed 15 people, prosecutors said.
Many are blaming the deaths in the northern city on rampant corruption and lax oversight of construction projects.
The Novi Sad public prosecutor’s office said 11 people — who it identified only by their initials — had been arrested on its orders.
Prosecutors “collected and thoroughly analyzed all the necessary documents, conducted interviews with a large number of people, and received an analysis aimed at determining the causes and circumstances of the collapse”, the office said.
Among those arrested is former construction minister Goran Vesic, who resigned a few days after the accident, local media reported.
Vesic argued he was not arrested but that he “voluntarily responded” to a request from police.
The former minister said on Facebook he made himself “available to the investigative authorities so that all the circumstances that led to the accident in Novi Sad could be fully investigated”.
He pledged to remain available to the relevant authorities and “prove that I do not bear criminal responsibility for these tragic events”.
There have been regular protests since the accident, with demonstrators demanding the judiciary act more quickly and arrest those responsible.
Protesters also seek the resignation of Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and the mayor of Novi Sad, along with the prosecution of officials responsible for the tragedy.
Apart from Vesic, Trade Minister Tomislav Momirovic, who was construction minister from 2020 to 2022 — the period in which the station renovation work began — has also resigned.
Serbia Railway Infrastructure’s acting general director Jelena Tanaskovic has also stepped down.
The opposition and members of the public have demanded the publication of the contracts signed with the companies involved in renovating the station.
A consortium of four companies — China Railway International and China Communications Construction, France’s Egis and Hungary’s Utiber — were in charge of the works.
The renovations were completed just a few weeks before the roop collapsed.
Fourteen people, aged between six and 74, were killed at the scene, while one person died in hospital on Sunday.
