In the interview, he recalled sending young men to fight in Croatia in the war, and said he had “led his men in the cleansing campaign of Papuk, Western Slavonia, but never commanded the action”.

In 2009, together with four other people, he was sentenced to a year in jail for the robbery of Novi Sad businessman Tomislav Djordjevic in 1992

“Bokan does not meet the basic moral requirements to lead the Board of Directors of an institution of national importance. His public biography – as the founder of a paramilitary formation active in war conflicts, and a person who has been convicted of criminal offences on multiple occasions – is in sharp contradiction with the values our theatre represents,” a press release issued by the union said.