Dragomir Jovanović

Who was Dragomir Jovanović?

Dragomir Dragi Jovanović was a Serbian politician and Axis collaborator.

Jovanović finished a law degree at the University of Belgrade's Law School. He received a job as a police officer in the city. When he later uncovered an alleged Croatian plot against King Alexander I of Yugoslavia during his visit to Zagreb, he was made chief of police of Belgrade. After Alexander declared a dictatorship, Jovanović moved to an anti-communist unit. He remained in the police force up until the Second World War.

After the Kingdom of Yugoslavia's dissolution, Jovanović was declared mayor of Belgrade by Serbia's Axis-collaborating regime. For a period of time he was also in charge of the Serbian State Guard.

When the Yugoslav Partisan resistance threatened the Serbian regime in 1944, Jovanović fled the nation to Karlsbad. OZNA agents later discovered him there and returned him to the new communist Yugoslavia in 1945. He was tried as part of the Belgrade Process. He was found guilty of liquidating members of the People’s Liberation Movement, operating the Banjica concentration camp, German collaboration, holding talks with Draža Mihailović and organizing a meeting between Mihailović and Serbian leader Milan Nedić.