Serbia's Interior Ministry said authorities detained nine active police officers and one former officer on November 4, 2026, over alleged excessive force against detainees during anti-corruption protests in Belgrade. The ministry said the suspects, who served in an elite unit, tortured and intimidated people held in a government compound garage on August 14-15, 2025.
The arrests are the first major detentions over police conduct during two years of protests that ended SNS rule in Serbia, an EU membership candidate, at the October 25 election.
Serbian authorities detained nine active police officers and one former officer on November 4, 2026, the Interior Ministry said, over the alleged use of excessive force against detainees during anti-corruption protests in Belgrade.
The ministry said in a statement that the suspects, who served in an elite unit, tortured and intimidated several people detained in the garage of the government compound in downtown Belgrade on August 14-15, 2025. It said that by the use of force and threats they inflicted great pain and severe suffering on a larger number of persons, intending to obtain information from them and to intimidate and unlawfully punish them. The ministry provided only the initials of the officers and the former officer detained.
Reuters reported that the detentions marked the first major arrests in connection with violence against protesters who took to the streets over the past two years. Police used tear gas, crowd-control vehicles and stun grenades to disperse crowds during the protests, and dozens of students and activists who took part accused police of excessive force that resulted in injuries and psychological trauma.
Anti-corruption protests swept across Serbia, a candidate for European Union membership, in 2025 and 2026 after 16 people died when a concrete canopy on a renovated railway station in the city of Novi Sad collapsed on November 1, 2024. The protests ultimately resulted in the ouster of the populist Serbian Progressive Party, which is loyal to ex-President Aleksandar Vucic, in an October 25 snap parliamentary election by the leaderless Student List.
Serbian students, activists, opposition politicians and rights watchdogs have accused Vucic and the SNS of political violence, pressure against media, ties to organised crime and rampant corruption. Vucic and his allies deny the accusations.
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