Today and yesterday, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights filed a number of criminal reports against unidentified police officers who acted unlawfully and used excessive force against citizens of Serbia. It submitted reports against multiple unidentified individuals wearing balaclavas and police uniforms, who acted brutally towards Serbian citizens.
One of the criminal reports concerns an unprecedented incident involving the police on Vojvode Stepe Street in Belgrade. Police vans drove at full speed towards people who had been blocking the street since the previous night in an act of civil disobedience. As a video circulating on social media clearly shows, four police vans, with sirens blaring and lights flashing, drove at high speed directly at the gathered people, leaving them with no choice but to flee down the street towards side exits. The Interior Ministry’s Internal Control Sector and the Protector of Citizens must urgently investigate who ordered and authorised this brutal and unprecedented police action against the citizens of Serbia.
BCHR simultaneously submitted a criminal report against a number of unidentified individuals wearing balaclavas and dressed in uniforms resembling those of the police, who resorted to violence against people gathered on the Kralja Aleksandra Boulevard in Belgrade in an act of civil disobedience prompted by the current socio-political developments. The conduct of these masked individuals, as well as their use of physical force and coercive measures, gives rise to serious concerns that this was not a lawful and professional exercise of police powers. In light of Serbian by-laws, as well as the methodology and standards on the use of coercive measures by the police, there is reasonable suspicion that these unidentified individuals were impersonating police officers.
BCHR yesterday submitted a criminal report concerning excessive use of force by uniformed police, specifically the beating of people in Lazarevićeva Street, following the protest at Slavija Square in Belgrade on Saturday, 28 June. The fact that the police allowed these individuals to leave the scene freely after the intervention further reinforces the conclusion that the conduct was unlawful and unjustified. BCHR also filed a criminal report concerning the blocking of an ambulance by a police cordon on Kneza Miloša Street in Belgrade on Saturday evening. The police must provide a public explanation as to what legitimate grounds, if any, justified blocking the passage of an emergency vehicle with its lights and siren activated, and how it was eventually allowed to proceed – almost simultaneously with the onset of the police action against citizens. BCHR also submitted a criminal report concerning the assault on a Danas reporter covering the protest by a plainclothes police officer on Resavska Street on Saturday evening.
Rather than witnessing the defusing of tensions in Serbia, where student and civil protests have been ongoing for more than seven months, we are seeing alarming unconstitutional and unlawful actions by the police and by individuals impersonating police officers, who have been violating numerous rights of Serbia’s citizens, especially young people. Of particular concern are the detentions of a large number of students, with footage of their arrests quickly broadcast by pro-government media. BCHR calls on the police and senior state officials to ensure that their actions contribute to alleviating social tensions and are in full compliance with the Constitution, international human rights standards and the laws of the Republic of Serbia. In addition to alerting national institutions and authorities, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights will notify the relevant international bodies of the latest developments.
