A prison criticism in opposition to militia analyst Aleksandar Radic used to be filed on Friday by Serbia’s Internal Ministry on the quiz of the Increased Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade over his claims that a sonic weapon used to be doubtlessly ancient in opposition to protesters at a huge rally on March 15 closing 365 days.
Radic is suspected of two crimes: making ready an offence in opposition to the constitutional notify and safety of Serbia, and disclosure of labeled recordsdata.
He’s suspected specifically of presenting “faux claims in the case of the alleged use of a ‘sound cannon’ by command authorities” at some stage in a first-rate anti-authorities relate on March 15, 2025.
A prosecution assertion added that it’s a long way moreover suspected that, by “exploiting his contacts with unidentified other folks employed by command authorities, [he] clean recordsdata labeled at plenty of ranges of secrecy”.
After his apartment and office had been raided in June, Radic left the country. The prosecution now requests an notify for his detention and the topic of an arrest warrant.
The prosecution assertion quoted Radic’s communication with journalists from N1 television, the command broadcaster RTS, Beta news agency, and the weekly Nedeljnik, by which he used to be asked about his idea of the incident at the relate that day.
“Attributable to this truth … the N1 news portal published an editorial … containing A.R.’s assertion alleging the use of a ‘sound cannon’. In step with the prosecution, this used to be the first media claim that a sound cannon had been ancient at some stage in the March 15, 2025 relate in Belgrade,” it said.
It illustrious that Radic’s cell cell phone and plenty of digital devices underwent forensic examination, after which “it used to be positive that there are grounds for suspicion that the suspect dedicated the aforementioned prison offences”.
The prosecution assertion moreover cited Radic’s communication with Zdravko Ponos, the high of the opposition Serbia Centre occasion, SRCE,who used to be wondered on July 1 over his claims that a sound cannon used to be ancient.
It added that Radic chatted with Russian citizen, named as V.O., and with a Serbian Military lieutenant colonel and pilot, named as D.B., in regards to the identical topic.
The prosecution assertion illustrious moreover that Radic moreover communicated with college students of the College of Dramatic Arts who had been drawn to what extra or much less weapon used to be ancient. The prosecution assertion contains tell quotes from college students who spoke with Radic.
The Journalists’ Affiliation of Serbia, UNS, condemned the prosecution’s assertion due to it published the identities of your complete journalists who “at some stage in their loyal work, had legitimately contacted a provide of recordsdata [Radic]”. UNS said that it considers this “an act of intimidation”.
The rally on March 15, 2025 used to be the greatest relate ever held in Serbia, attracting spherical 300,000 of us, in line with the NGO Archive of Public Gatherings. It used to be organised by college students calling for accountability over the deaths of 16 of us after a concrete camouflage collapsed at Novi Unhappy railway topic several months earlier.
Throughout a still vigil for the ineffective, the group with out note dispersed in a transient stampede. Some of them later told BIRN that, proper earlier than the stampede started, they heard a noise that they variously described as “unnatural”, “indulge in from a movie”, or indulge in a jet plane. Others described a “extra or much less low howling sound”.
The Serbian authorities denied that from now on or much less sonic weapon used to be ancient at the relate. Internal Minister Ivica Dacic first denied that police even beget this kind of acoustic tool, nonetheless later admitted they beget two Long-Vary Acoustic Devices, nonetheless that they hadn’t been ancient.
The Increased Public Prosecutor’s Office then launched an investigation on the suspicion that “simulation of the use of a ‘sound cannon’ used to be planned and applied at the quit of the relate” in notify to pin the blame on command authorities.
A group of 14 prominent Serbian NGOs answered that the judiciary “succumbed to political stress and remodeled the investigation into the political persecution of victims and those that supported them”.