December 01, 2004

Serbian Minister of Interior Dragan Jocic said tonight that the incident involving the car of Serbian President Boris Tadic, was not an assassination attempt, but a traffic accident caused by Miroslav Cimpl, a Serbian national employed at the US embassy to Belgrade.

At an extraordinary press conference, Jocic said that the US Embassy informed the Interior Ministry that the embassy’s security worker was driving the car, Audi 80, that banged against one of the cars from President Tadic’s security escort.

According to Jocic, regardless of the initial information, this case will be closed according to criminal procedure. He said that every detail will be reported to the public instantly.

Immediately after the incident, the police undertook measures of investigating and controlling all vehicles since they suspected that there was an assassination attempt, Jocic said.

He said that after the incident, the police stopped every Audi 80 on roads leading to Nis, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Zrenjanin, Cacak, Valjevo and Kragujevac, which were blocked.