Trial of Former Niš Mayor Dragana Sotirovski Postponed The corruption trial dogging former Niš mayor Dragana Sotirovski is already running late – and it hasn’t even properly begun. A case framed as a test of political accountability has been kicked down the road to June.

On the eve of the hearing, pro-government tabloids primed the public with blazing headlines announcing that “DRAGANA SOTIROVSKI’S TRIAL BEGINS TOMORROW! Accused of abuse of office!” The narrative was clear: a long‑anticipated reckoning was finally at hand, with the former mayor cast as the central figure in a serious abuse-of-office case.

By midday, the script had changed. At the Higher Court in Niš, the preparatory hearing was quietly postponed to June 10 because Sotirovski’s defense lawyer “will not be in Serbia” on the scheduled day, according to reports citing court sources. Instead of sharp opening salvos, the chamber will sit idle a few weeks longer.

The charges, however, are anything but mild. As former mayor and former head of the city’s emergency headquarters, Sotirovski is accused of a continued criminal offense of abuse of official position, allegedly exploiting her authority to hire the companies “Vodomonteri” and “Sim puk gradnja” for construction works “at prices significantly higher than market value,” based on offers far above the estimates prepared by public utility Naissus. Prosecutors say this brought an unlawful gain of 460,322,637 dinars to the firms and equivalent damage to the city budget.

Adding to the pressure, her former associates have already folded: they “entered into plea agreements with the prosecution based on which they were convicted,” a fact repeated in later coverage that notes they “have already reached plea agreements.”

For now, Sotirovski remains under a ban on leaving her apartment, a milder measure after her detention was lifted late last year. The showdown is merely delayed, not defused – and when June 10 arrives, the court will have to move from procedural shadowboxing to the substance of one of Niš’s most expensive alleged abuses of office in years.