Dragan Jočić

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Minister of Interior
Dragan Jočić

Incumbent
Assumed office March 3, 2004
Preceded by	Dušan Mihajlović

Born	1960 Belgrade
Nationality	Serb
Profession	Lawyer

Dragan Jočić (Serbian Cyrillic: Драган Јочић) is the current Serbian Minister of Interior in the cabinet of Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica. He was born in Belgrade in 1960.

Jočić studied at the University of Belgrade, graduating from the Faculty of Law. After graduation, he started private law practice. He was a member of the Democratic Party of Serbia since its inception; Jočić is currently the party vice-president and has been a member of the party's executive board since its founding. From 1992 to 1997, he was a deputy in the Parliament of Serbia. He was also a city council member and has been a member of the Belgrade City Council since 2000. He belongs to the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS).

On Friday, January 25, 2008 around 11:30pm CET, Jočić was severely injured in a car crash when a government-issued, chauffer-driven Mercedes M 500 L that he was riding in hit a dog on the Belgrade-Niš highway near the town of Velika Plana. After hitting the animal, the driver, Mirko Damnjanović lost control of the vehicle, which then careened into a mid-highway divider, crossed into the oncoming traffic lanes, spun several times, and landed in a ditch.^[1] Jočić was then airlifted to Belgrade's Banjica orthopedic clinic with spinal injuries where an emergency surgery was performed early Saturday morning January 26, 2008. Driver Damnjanović was rushed to Belgrade's Urgentni centar where he also had emergency surgery. It was initially reported that they're both in stable conditions following their surgeries.^[2] However, it soon became clear Jočić's condition remained life-threatening and a lot more serious than initially predicted and he was put back into intensive care where reanimation measures were performed.^[3] On January 27, 2008, a team of Russian neurosurgeons from Burdenko Institute arrived to Belgrade in order to help with Jočić's post-surgery recovery process.

1 Controversy
2 Trivia
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Controversy

After being named Interior Minister on March 3, 2004, several newspapers reported that as a 21-year-old Jočić was directly involved in a 1981 kiosk robbery for which he was convicted to a 6-month conditional jail sentence. He confirmed the stories when asked about them.^[4]

In September 2004, Jočić became the target of criticism for trying to influence Dejan Milenković Bagzi (one of the accused in the Prime Minister murder trial).^{[citation needed]} The accusation of meddling in the trial came after the transcripts of Bagzi's apparent phone call with his attorney Biljana Kajganić were published. In them, attorney Kajganić allegedly tells her client that she got him the protected witness status after talking to Jočić and Rade Bulatović, but that in return he (Bagzi) has to "admit to organizing the killing of Momir Gavrilović in 2001 on orders from Ljubiša "Čume" Buha".^[5] Jočić strenuously denied the charges that he in any way influneced the trial and added that transcripts were forged.

Jočić was blasted again for having a private meeting with the chief suspect for the murder of the Premier just minutes after he was arrested. The meeting lasted several hours. Jočić confirmed this but denied that he broke the law by stating that this was the safest option.

He was also accused of failing to adequately protect the Belgrade mosque during riots caused by violence in Kosovo. Jočić reacted by sacking the chief of Belgrade police force even though transcripts of phone calls which they had during the riot clearly proved that he strictly insisted that no force be used against protestors. That eventually led to the significant damage to the mosque.