Serbia's Minister of Interior Ivica Dacic on Monday confirmed Serbian media reports about "a Croatian spy" having been arrested in Belgrade, and he also confirmed that Croatian pop singer Severina was detained by Serbia's border police over criminal speech.

The Belgrade-based media reported earlier today that the Serbian Security-Intelligence Agency (BIA) and other competent state bodies arrested a “Croatian spy” early on Monday morning.

The Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Ministry said it did not have any information or confirmation that this had occurred.

The Serbian Beta News Agency reported that Dacic “confirmed” the arrest of a person who spied for Croatia.

Dacic also confirmed that Croatian pop singer Severina was detained by the Serbian border police and that this was done in line with regulations on criminal speech.

“Severina was not arrested and she was not barred entry to Serbia but was detained for a check,” Dacic said.

Beta said that the minister announced that he would request the cancellation of the list of persons who had committed speech crimes.

Severina said on Monday that after she had to wait in her car on the border with Serbia for several hours, after which her car was searched for 45 minutes and she was taken in for questioning on topics such as the Srebrenica genocide, Jasenovac, her support for Serbian protesters against planned lithium mining in Serbia, Croatia's first president Franjo Tudjman, Croatia's 1995 military and police operation Storm, and other topics.

Severina said she then asked to be given back her documents and returned to Croatia. She said that she would not go back to Serbia “as long as the dictator is in power.”

“The one who is currently in power in Serbia will not manage to divert public attention from the problems Serbs in Serbia have by harassing me,” she said.

The alleged arrest of a Croatian spy happened a day after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on his Instagram profile that he met with attorney Nemanja Beric, who was arrested by Croatian authorities over a recording with the pro-Chetnik Serb singer Baja Mali Knindza, with Vucic saying he was arrested “only because he is a Serb.”

“I promised Nemanja and his wife Jana that we will go together to one of the next concerts by Baja Mali Knindza,” Vucic wrote on Sunday about the musician who glorifies war crimes.