Hundreds of Serbian students clashed with police in Belgrade during a protest against police checks at Belgrade University offices after a 25-year-old student fell from a window of one of the faculty buildings last Friday.
University Rector Vladan Djokic told protesters that the police entered the building without a valid legal explanation, demanding documents and seizing computers.
“They weren’t there to investigate, but to humiliate. They were there to tell every professor, student, citizen: look what happens to people who don’t keep quiet. You can raid university premises, but not people’s consciences.” – he said to the crowd.
Dragan Vasiljevic, director of the Serbian police, said the officers were acting on a court order when they entered the university’s offices to search for evidence related to the student’s death.
“The work and main goal of the police is to shed light on the case of the tragic death of the girl. We are acting according to the orders of the High Public Prosecutor’s Office,” he said, adding that the protesters attacked the police who were performing their duty.
“This was really senseless. The police restored order with a minimal use of force,” declared Vasiljevic.
Anti-government protests have gripped Serbia since December 2024, a month after 16 people died when a shelter collapsed at a railway station in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad.
Protesters and opposition leaders accuse the Serbian president and his allies of corruption, ties to organized crime, violence against political opponents and suppression of media freedom, while Vucic and his allies deny those charges.
