Serbian officers arrested for using ‘excessive force’ against protesters

What the report says

Serbia’s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that nine active police officers and one former officer had been arrested over accusations that they used excessive force against students during protests last year. According to Al Jazeera’s reporting, the suspects are alleged to have abused and tortured several people in the garage of a government compound in Belgrade in August 2025.

The ministry said the officers were on duty when they allegedly used force and threats to inflict severe pain and suffering on injured people, with the stated aim of obtaining information, intimidating them and punishing them unlawfully. The ministry released only the suspects’ initials, though state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia reported that the commander of the Special Antiterrorism Unit, Igor Zmiric, was among those detained.

The arrests come against the backdrop of a broader anti-corruption protest movement that began after 16 people were killed in the collapse of a railway-station canopy in Novi Sad in November 2024. That disaster was widely viewed by protesters as a symbol of corruption under then-president Aleksandar Vucic, who later lost power in elections. Since the vote, student-led demonstrators have been pressing for reforms in the police and intelligence services and calling for accountability from senior officials.

More broadly, the case fits into long-running concerns about police conduct and civil liberties in Serbia. Amnesty International has previously warned that protesters, journalists and civil society groups faced intimidation and unlawful surveillance, although those findings are background context and not part of the ministry’s current allegations.