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Knežević: 'Until Those Who Shielded Criminals Are Also Tried, There Is No Real Dismantling of Organized Crime'

In a statement dated August 3, 2026, Viktorija Knežević asserts that major trials are often just a 'show for the public,' with the key lying in prosecuting insiders within the system.

Foto: Wikipedia (Pravosuđe)
Summary
  • Viktorija Knežević claims that major organized crime trials without prosecuting insiders from the system are just a show for the public.
  • She criticizes double standards: the state is severe toward ordinary people and slow toward powerful criminals with connections.
  • She warns against political victimization, where politicians portray themselves as victims to avoid questions about their own responsibility.
  • The real fight against organized crime, according to her, begins with asset seizure and prosecuting those who protected criminals from within institutions.

In a statement released on August 3, 2026, Viktorija Knežević, a city councilor, delivered a sharp critique of Croatia's fight against organized crime. According to her, operations that result in the arrests of only known criminals, without apprehending those within the system who enabled their activities, are nothing more than a 'show for the public.'

"When we watch a major organized crime trial and the defendants are only those we all immediately recognize as criminals, while among them there is no one from the police, security services, judiciary, or politics who allowed them to operate for years, let's not applaud too soon," Knežević said. "Perhaps only pawns have been picked up to show that the state is doing something."

Without Internal Protection, Criminal Networks Cannot Survive for Years

Knežević cited her criminal law professor to explain the fundamental logic: while two people can rob a kiosk without anyone knowing, twenty people cannot launder millions, buy properties, establish companies, and obtain permits for years without someone in the system noticing.

"Someone tips off. Someone turns a blind eye. Someone fails to check. Someone files the case away in a drawer. Someone receives a favor, a job, or money in return," she listed. "Organized crime is not just a group of criminals. Its strength lies precisely in the connections it manages to establish with legal businesses and institutions."

Harshness Toward the Ordinary Citizen, Slowness Toward the Powerful

Knežević points out that the absence of real prosecution of organized crime is regularly accompanied by two phenomena. The first is the "almost grotesque harshness" of the state apparatus toward ordinary citizens. For a wrong piece of paperwork, a small debt, or a traffic violation, the state shows all its force through fines, inspections, and detentions.

"Toward people who turn millions, use other people's names, and know whom to call, everything suddenly becomes complex, sensitive, and slow," she warned. The ordinary person, as she puts it, is the easiest target because they have no connections, no money, and no one to call. "On the weak, state severity is trained without any risk. That's how statistics are produced, the impression that institutions are working, and citizens' fear of the state apparatus."

In contrast, a serious criminal often does not fear the law, but only the possibility of losing the right person in the system who protects them.

Political Victimization as a Smokescreen

The second phenomenon Knežević criticizes is the political exploitation of the fight against crime. In clientelistic systems, she claims, politicians who have managed institutions for years often present themselves as the greatest fighters against crime, and in a more extreme version, as its greatest victims.

"This gives them an aura of courage, and the question of their responsibility is replaced by a story of personal endangerment and heroism," she said. Instead of examining how the criminal network emerged and why institutions failed to stop it, the public is offered a spectacle of a brave politician standing alone against dangerous forces.

"Therefore, political victimization should not be automatically accepted as proof of someone's innocence, courage, or successful fight against crime. The real question is: what did you and the institutions you manage do while that crime was growing?"

What It Means to Truly Dismantle Organized Crime

Knežević emphasizes that organized crime is not dismantled when a few perpetrators or nominal owners are arrested in front of cameras. "It is dismantled when its money and assets are seized, its ties to legal businesses are severed, and those who protected it from within the system, warned it, or kept the doors open are prosecuted."

Without that, she concludes, perhaps one crew has fallen, but the system remains and can continue tomorrow with someone else. "A state is not strong when it can punish an ordinary person. Any state can do that. It is strong when the law applies equally to a person who knows no one and to a person who knows everyone. Anything else is not a real fight against organized crime."

FAQ
Who is Viktorija Knežević? +
Viktorija Knežević is a city councilor who issued a statement on August 3, 2026, regarding the state of the fight against organized crime in Croatia.
What does Knežević consider the key problem in the fight against organized crime? +
She believes that major trials are often a show for the public because people from the police, judiciary, or politics who enabled criminals to operate for years are rarely prosecuted.
How does Knežević describe the state's attitude toward the ordinary citizen and toward the serious criminal? +
She claims that the state is overly severe toward the ordinary person who has no connections or protection, while it is often slow and ineffective toward those who turn millions and have contacts within the system.
What is political victimization according to Knežević? +
It is a phenomenon where politicians, often themselves part of clientelistic networks, present themselves as fighters against crime or its victims to divert attention from their own responsibility.

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