{"id":34391,"date":"2022-12-05T15:35:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T13:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=34391"},"modified":"2022-12-09T15:35:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T13:35:34","slug":"illegal-construction-on-kopaonik-apartments-trump-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/illegal-construction-on-kopaonik-apartments-trump-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Illegal Construction on Kopaonik: Apartments Trump the Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rajko Nikoli\u0107<\/strong> has been a ranger in the Kopaonik National Park<\/em> for years, and he has been up and down the mountain. He knows it like the back of his hand. He also knows about the unfinished villa, near the Putnik<\/em> Hotel, which had direct ski slope access. The spot is perfect for skiing.<\/p>

“After skiing, they don’t have to walk for a kilometer or two to get to their accommodation. Instead, they can leave their skis and take a lift up to their room. They feel like Lords,” says Nikoli\u0107.<\/p>

On the site of that villa, more than 18 years ago, two investors started an illegal construction project.<\/p>

The building inspector ordered them to stop the project, but Nikoli\u0107 saw in 2004 that they ignored this and that they were preparing to install the roof. In a hand-written note, he later stated:<\/p>

“Urgently notify the Department For Inspection Supervision to implement the measures prescribed by the law.”<\/p>

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Ranger Rajko Nikoli\u0107 reads his note from 2004; photo: CINS<\/figcaption><\/figure>

In subsequent years, the construction work was stopped, but not because of an order from the inspection.<\/p>

One of the investors, Dragan \u0106ur\u010di\u0107<\/strong>, went to prison.<\/p>

He was first arrested in 2006 as part of the so-called customs mafia and sentenced to two years in prison for bribing customs officials. Six years later, he was arrested again. This time, because his company did not pay installments for the trucks it leased, and when they were supposed to be returned, \u0106ur\u010di\u0107 gave them to Zvonko Veselinovi\u0107<\/strong> and Milan Radoi\u010di\u0107<\/strong>, to repay a debt he had towards them at the time. Because of this, he would be associated for years with Veselinovi\u0107 and Radoi\u010di\u0107, individuals close to the government and against whom several investigations were conducted, but who were never convicted in those proceedings.<\/p>

Although the apartments on Kopaonik remained unfinished all those years, \u0106ur\u010di\u0107 and his partner Petar \u0110okovi\u0107<\/strong> did not give up on them.<\/p>

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Apartments that have been under construction illegally for almost two decades; photo: CINS<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Construction to the detriment of nature<\/h2>

\u0106ur\u010di\u0107’s and \u0110okovi\u0107’s apartment buildings fit into the setting on Kopaonik that was created in previous years. Construction in the national park, often illegal and in a protected area, is booming, and the consequences for nature are already visible.<\/p>

Some species of birds have disappeared. Wastewater from the sewage system, which cannot cover all the newly-built hotels and apartments, flows directly into the Bistrica River, which is now “dead”.<\/p>

Goran Sekuli\u0107<\/strong>, a nature conservation expert who works at the Serbian branch of the World Wildlife Fund<\/em> (WWF), says that intensive construction \u2013 both legal and illegal \u2013 renders the protected area meaningless. He believes that Kopaonik can hardly return to its “normal” state, but even if it were possible – he does not see the will to work on it.<\/p>

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View of the buildings in the centre of Kopaonik from Pancics peak; photo: CINS<\/figcaption><\/figure>

This is also shown by the example of apartments that \u0106ur\u010di\u0107 and \u0110okovi\u0107 built for years without permission. Time passed, but they remained untouched.<\/p>

In 2014, \u0110okovi\u0107 asked the Municipality of Ra\u0161ka<\/em> to legalize those apartments, and a few years later he sold his share. As the only remaining investor, \u0106ur\u010di\u0107 continued construction, and not even a new inspection report managed to prevent this.<\/p>

In May 2020, building inspector Vesna Rumeni\u0107 ordered him to stop the works and to demolish everything added without a permit within seven days. He did nothing of the sort. Rumeni\u0107 filed a criminal complaint for illegal construction. But that still could not stop \u0106ur\u010di\u0107.<\/p>

The inspector asked again for the construction work to be stopped. This time, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure<\/em> warned \u0106ur\u010di\u0107 that if he does not demolish the illegally built property himself, they would hire someone to do it, and then charge \u0106ur\u010di\u0107 for it.<\/p>

After nearly two decades, \u0106ur\u010di\u0107 once again found himself facing the risk that the apartments he was building without a permit, despite inspection bans, would be demolished.<\/p>

A broken system<\/h2>

Even without permits, investors do not receive high fines in court for illegal construction projects. In the majority of cases in the last seven years, the Basic Court in Ra\u0161ka<\/em> prescribed suspended sentences and fines which went up to 150,000 RSD at the most.<\/p>

Nikola Gagi\u0107<\/strong>, a lawyer at the Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute<\/em> (RERI), says that investors expect to go unpunished.<\/p>

“They figure: ‘Oh, I’ll pay a small fine and I will not go to prison… Sure. The worst that can happen is that I will have to pay a fine which will be lower than my profit.'”<\/p>

That was the case with Dragan \u0106ur\u010di\u0107.<\/p>

At the end of October 2020, the Basic Court in Ra\u0161ka<\/em> ruled that \u0106ur\u010di\u0107 was guilty of construction in a national park without a permit. Because of this, he was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence (he will not serve the sentence if he does not commit a new criminal offense within two years) and a fine of 150,000 RSD.<\/p>

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