Serbian authorities are facing criticism over the arrest of a state arms factory employee suspected of leaking documents that blew the lid on an arms scam involving the father of the country’s interior minister.

The arrest of Aleksandar Obradovic was made on September 18, but only became public last week when the Serbian weekly magazine NIN reported he had been taken into custody, citing anonymous sources.

BIRN has discovered that prosecutors are investigating Obradovic on suspicion of revealing trade secrets under Article 240 of the Criminal Code, a crime that carries a potential prison sentence of up to 10 years.

The arrest came three days after the website Arms Watch reported that a firm connected to Branko Stefanovic, father of Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, was involved in exporting weapons that ended up in the hands of Islamic State fighters in Yemen, and a day before BIRN revealed data contradicting a denial by the Krusik state arms factory that it was selling weapons to the firm, GIM, at a privileged rate.