Serbia detains 10 police officers suspected of torturing protesters — The Guardian

Serbia has detained nine serving police officers and one former law enforcement officer in a case involving the alleged use of excessive force against detained participants in anti-corruption protests in Belgrade. The Guardian reports, citing a statement by the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Suspicions involving an elite unit

According to Serbia’s Interior Ministry, the suspects served in an elite police unit. The ministry alleges that on August 14–15, 2025, they tortured and intimidated several people held in a garage at a government complex in central Belgrade.

The ministry’s statement says that the law enforcement officers inflicted severe pain and suffering on the detainees through the use of force and threats. According to the Interior Ministry, the aim was to obtain information from them, intimidate them, and unlawfully punish them. The names of those detained were not disclosed; the ministry provided only their initials.

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Protests after the Novi Sad tragedy

According to The Guardian, these are the first large-scale detentions linked to violence against protest participants, whose protests continued in Serbia over the past two years. During the demonstrations, police used tear gas, crowd-control vehicles and stun grenades.

Dozens of students and activists who took part in the protests had previously accused police of excessive use of force, which they said resulted in injuries and psychological consequences.

Anti-corruption protests swept Serbia in 2025–2026 after a concrete canopy collapsed at the reconstructed railway station in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024. Sixteen people were killed. As the publication notes, the protests ended with the defeat of the Serbian Progressive Party in the early parliamentary elections on October 25, which were won by the Student List.