Report says it suspects Belgrade Prosecution ‘committed criminal offences’ in its handling of cases concerning anti-government protesters and the authorities’ alleged use of a ‘sound cannon’ at a demonstration.
A commission established by Serbia’s Supreme Public Prosecution Office said in a report published on Tuesday that the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade had committed irregularities in handling several high-profile cases.
These cases relate to an alleged sonic weapon used during a huge anti-government protest in March 2025, as well as attacks on students and a police raid on the university rectorate building.
There are grounds to suspect that criminal offences
“There are grounds to suspect that criminal offences falling under the jurisdiction of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime have been committed,” the commission said, adding that the report had been forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office for the start of criminal proceedings.
The commission was formed on October 27, two days after parliamentary elections in which the opposition Student List beat the Serbian Progressive Party, which had held power for 14 years.
The report focused on seven cases at the Higher Prosecutor’s Office, and is likely just the first report.
The report claims the head of the Higher
The report claims the head of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, Nenad Stefanovic, “instrumentalised certain public prosecutors in pursuit of illegitimate objectives, and effectively established a parallel prosecutorial system”.
It says the commission had identified bias in the prosecution’s handling of cases, violations of the law through unlawful searches and seizures, and the collection of data unrelated to the subject matter of the proceedings.
The commission also pointed to the alleged abuse of organisational and hierarchical powers, the use of prosecutorial authority against citizens and witnesses and restrictions on the exercise of the rights of injured parties.
The ‘sonic weapon’ claims were made after around
The ‘sonic weapon’ claims were made after around 300,000 people gathered at an anti-government protest in Belgrade in March 2025. During a 15-minute silence held in memory of the victims of the Novi Sad railway station disaster in 2024, protesters were suddenly startled by an unexpected noise and began running and screaming, triggering a brief stampede.
A case was opened by the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office following complaints from protesters who suspected that a long-range acoustic weapon had been used. However, in September 2025, the prosecution decided that there were no grounds for criminal proceedings.
The commission’s report said that numerous irregularities had occurred in the handling of the case, and the office had done less to investigate the incident and more to “formalise a decision, made in advance, that no sound cannon had been used”.
According to the report, the prosecution treated claims
According to the report, the prosecution treated claims by authorities that no acoustic weapon had been deployed as an indisputable fact, disregarding material evidence that directly contradicted them.
“In several instances, the political affiliations of the authors of video recordings or critics were used as an argument against the credibility of their claims”, the report noted, referring to footage of the incident itself.
The report also stated that, in June 2026, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office asked Serbia’s Security Intelligence Agency, BIA, to conduct checks on 154 citizens who had given statements about the alleged use of a sound cannon.
Following publication of the report, the Higher Public
Following publication of the report, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office said that it “rejects as unfounded the allegations contained in the report of the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office”.
It questioned “whether the report was intended to examine the legality, effectiveness and consistency of the prosecution’s conduct, or whether it was in fact used as a means for the Supreme Public Prosecutor and certain prosecutors … to settle scores with the Chief Public Prosecutor and certain prosecutors of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade”.
On Tuesday, Stefanovic said he was filing a criminal complaint against Goran Ilic, a public prosecutor at the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office who chairs the commission.
Stefanovic filed the complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime, accusing Ilic of abuse of office and obstruction of justice, He alleges that Ilic interfered with the performance of his prosecutorial duties and advised him to resign.
Source: balkaninsight.com
