At least seven individuals were arrested or detained on Wednesday by Serbian police on suspicion that they were planning violent actions for election day this Sunday. Five of the individuals were arrested in the northern city of Novi Sad.
The Higher Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade said that the arrests were done in coordination with the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad and members of the Security Intelligence Agency (BIA).
The five individuals in Novi Sad, all aged either 27 or 28, were arrested “due to reasonable suspicion that on the day of the parliamentary elections, Sunday, October 25, 2026, with the intent of undermining the constitutional order and security of Serbia, they planned to commit acts of violence, riots, as well as attacks on political opponents and police officers.”
They are suspected of recruiting people for “physical clashes” on Sunday. As the prosecution added, the plan was to come to Belgrade “for the violent alteration of the constitutional order and the overthrow of the highest state bodies.”
The press release stated that “This plan would be executed by using mobile teams operating outside the legal framework to attack political opponents and police officers using tools and weapons”, and that “the means for committing the criminal offences – balaclavas, wooden poles, flares, knives, and weapons” were to be provided by a member of the group.
The suspects have been detained for up to 48 hours.
Lawyer Rastko Naumov told BIRN that his client Srdjan Ilic, an opposition activist from Belgrade, was detained on Wednesday morning because of alleged planned actions during election day.
“They came this morning with an order from the Higher Court in Belgrade to search the house due to the criminal offence of ‘preparing an act against the constitutional order and security of Serbia’,” Naumov said.
He added that all electronic devices were temporarily seized from Ilic, including computers, phones, hard drives and similar items.
After the house search, he was handed a summons to give a statement to the police, where he went voluntarily, after which he was detained for up to 48 hours.
The informal organisation “Belgrade Stays” (Beograd ostaje), of which Ilic was a member, said on the social media platform X that “police appeared at the addresses of several of their activists”, but gave no other details.
In the town of Vrnjacka Banja in central Serbia one more activist was arrested on Wednesday, according to claims from Katarina Obradovic, the municipal coordinator of the opposition Student List.
Obradovic told N1 television that police officers raided the home of a member of the citizens’ assembly of Vrnjacka Banja around half past five this morning, conducted a search and detained him.
“They searched everything from the attic to the basement for no particular reason, and nothing suspicious was found. They asked the lawyer if there were any weapons. In the house, they only found promotional material for the Student List meant for information booths, and nothing else,” she said. His electronic devices were also taken.
Serbia has been facing mass anti-government student protests for nearly two years. The student movement nominated their Student List consisting of professors and experts they chose for snap elections that will be held on Sunday. The Student List is currently the strongest opponent to former President Aleksandar Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party, which has been in power since 2012.
Ahead of some of the larger protests during this period, Serbian authorities repeatedly arrested some of the most prominent activists.