Civil society organizations express deep concern about the direction in which the investigative actions on the incident of March 15, 2025, which have recently been undertaken by the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, are moving. The current action of this prosecution is the opposite of the thorough and impartial investigation that this drastic case requires, and indicates a conscious intention to cover up the actual incident, and to divert the public’s attention to the field of political persecution of the victims and all those who provided them with legal or other support.
We believe that the investigation into the event of March 15 should have been conducted from the very beginning by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime, which withdrew from the case without providing any information or explanation. The case was then handed over to the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, which conducted the proceedings ineffectively. The last twist, in which the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office announces the taking over of the case and the investigation into the alleged planning and organization of the simulation of the use of a sound cannon, as a form of planning and execution of criminal acts against the constitutional order, represents an absurd replacement of theses. The prosecution substantiates these suspicions with a document drawn up by students at one of the plenums, although the content of that document clearly shows that the sound cannon was considered solely as a risk, i.e. as a threat that the police will use that tool against the participants of the student protests, and not as a tool that the students will use or whose use they will simulate at the protest.
The investigative actions of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office entered the extremely worrying phase of open pressure on freedom of expression and critical opinion. Yesterday’s search of the apartment and the arrest of military analyst Aleksandar Radić, along with the prosecution’s announcement that they will prosecute all those who allegedly planned, organized and provided media support for the creation of a “narrative about the alleged use of a sound cannon”, clearly shows the intention to intimidate all those who refused to remain silent in the face of obvious violence against citizens.
Contrary to fabricated accusations of simulations, we remind the public of the undeniable facts and scale of this incident. Several thousand citizens contacted our organizations reporting that they were victims of an unknown sound shock during the March 15, 2025 protest in Belgrade, as a result of which they suffered various health, somatic and psychological damages. Due to the seriousness of the situation and the risk of repetition, 47 citizens asked the European Court of Human Rights to issue a temporary measure, which the Court issued, asking the local authorities to prevent any use of sound devices for the purpose of controlling the gathered citizens at protests. At the invitation of the European Court, an official petition was also submitted, while the civil society organizations submitted all their findings in a timely manner to the competent domestic authorities with the aim of establishing all the facts and establishing responsibility for this event. At the beginning of April 2025, civil society organizations submitted a criminal complaint for terrorism to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and provided legal assistance to citizens in connection with giving statements before the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Since the President of the Republic expressed his readiness for any foreign service to investigate the event of March 15, we believe that it is of crucial importance that credible and neutral international mechanisms be included in this process. Therefore, we hereby demand that the state urgently submit a request to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Volker Türk, for the appointment of an independent fact-finding mission about the incidents at the protest in Belgrade on March 15, 2025. We remind you that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has already publicly announced that proposal, to which the local authorities have not responded so far.
Given that the domestic judiciary succumbed to political pressure and turned the investigation into political persecution of the victims and those who supported them, the UN mission is the only remaining guarantor that can impartially establish the full truth about the sonic boom on thousands of Serbian citizens.
Signatory organizations:
- A 11 – Initiative for economic and social rights
- Autonomous Women’s Center
- Belgrade Center for Security Policy
- Belgrade Center for Human Rights
- Center for judicial research – CEPRIS
- Crta
- FemPlatz
- Građanske inicijative
- Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia
- Youth Initiative for Human Rights
- Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights – YUCOM
- Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia – NUNS
- Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation
- Share Fondacija
- Trag Foundation
- Women in Black