CRTA addressed the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights regarding growing repression in Serbia

CRTA addressed the state of the rule of law and human rights in Serbia, raising serious concerns regarding growing repression against students, activists and citizen voices, in front of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. 

Read the full address below –

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Esteemed members of the European Parliament,

It is my great honor to address you and share with you our insights into the current situation in Serbia. 

Unfortunately, Serbia is once again in need of an international response for the protection of human rights.

Serbia is a country where lives are lost under the weight of corruption, as it happened when the canopy collapsed in Novi Sad – leaving 16 victims and sparking a historic and persistent peaceful citizen outcry for the rule of law, separation of powers, and protection of human rights. Around 80% of citizens support students’ demands.

What is the government’s response? Political imprisonments and exiles, mass surveillance, raids of civil society offices, expulsion of both domestic and foreign nationals, etc.

On March 15, at the largest-ever citizen gathering, thousands were attacked and injured by an unknown device while silently commemorating victims of the Novi Sad tragedy.

At present, there is an interim measure in place by the European Court of Human Rights, ordering Serbia to refrain from the use of illegal sonic weapons.

This case was brought before the Court in Strasbourg by civil society organizations – who collected 4,000 testimonies from victims. Most describe a deafening roar, like a low-flying airplane or a fast-approaching train. Some also felt a wave of heat. Within seconds, a crowd of thousands split in a stampede to either side of the central Belgrade street.

We cannot yet claim with certainty that this was an LRAD sonic cannon, nor a vortex gun, but we know that something was used.

Our government denies everything. To support their claims, they invited Russia’s FSB intelligence service to investigate. Predictably, the FSB concluded that nothing had happened and that the entire event was staged. 

The President of Serbia used these FSB “findings” to further the dominant propaganda narrative about the color revolution.

The day after the protest, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade launched an investigation — not into the use of illegal force, but against those spreading “disinformation” about the sonic weapon.

Another major case, which has unfortunately not received much international attention, is that of 12 activists from Novi Sad — politically persecuted individuals, mostly young people and students.

Six of them have been in detention for two months now, while the other six happened to be out of the country at the time of the arrests, and are now in political exile in Croatia. The Serbian prosecution demands their trial in absentia.

Orders for their arrests came amid the government’s massive campaign of intimidation in days preceding the March 15 protest – foreseeing chaos and violence, and announcing the state’s repressive measures. Conversations of these 12 individuals discussing protest action were illegally surveilled and immediately broadcast on pro-government media. The prosecution accuses them of “Plotting of Offences against the Constitutional Order and Security of Serbia  in complicity”, in connection with the criminal offenses of “Attack on the constitutional order” and “Inciting violent change of the constitutional order.”When you hear these charges, you might think of a terrorist organization or a rogue military unit attempting a coup, like in the Banjska case.

But no — these are a high school teacher, anti-fascist activists, students, and young members of a liberal political party and civic groups.

The situation is alarming, as professor Marija Vasić, one of the accused, began a hunger and thirst strike yesterday after their detention was extended for the third time, for another 30 days.

The media, security services, and prosecution are all captured by the ruling party, serving to counter critical voices. 

We also saw that in the case of the police raids on civil society.

For weeks, the campaign against USAID as a criminal organization, echoing narratives of color revolution, was used to legitimize the prosecution’s order to send armed police to storm our offices with undue force.

There are other methods of repression and intimidation as well.

Mass surveillance of activists and journalists has been documented and proven, including by Amnesty International. The evidence was so compelling that the Israeli company Cellebrite publicly terminated its cooperation with “clients in Serbia”.

More than 20 foreign nationals have been deported from Serbia — the exact number is unknown. The common factor for all publicly known cases is their support for protests in Serbia.

Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism regulations are being misused to comb through the private bank accounts of civil society activists.

As the civic resistance remains persistent, repression grows. It is clear that Serbia is in a deep political and social crisis.

In a democratic society, the way out of a political crisis is through elections – especially when the majority of citizens are dissatisfied with the government’s performance in all areas, do not trust institutions to resolve pressing issues, consider student demands to be unmet, and recognize systemic corruption as the number one problem in the country.

However, we remain skeptical even about that electoral path, knowing that a series of previous elections were neither free nor fair. For criminal deeds against the Voter Registry, freedom of vote, and election observers – no one has been held accountable. ODIHR recommendations remain unfulfilled. Promised and agreed electoral reforms are ignored and actively sabotaged by the government.

If you ask us what Europe can do for us:

We urgently need immediate, targeted action to release political prisoners and halt politically motivated prosecutions.

In the short term, we need support to stop the repression of critical voices and to intensify European efforts for real electoral reform in Serbia.

EU officials often speak of electoral reform — it’s one of the key points of the Reform Plan — but what Serbian citizens desperately need is for that reform to be real, not cosmetic.

This repression has reached such proportions that it can no longer go unnoticed, hidden behind diplomatic courtesies, or overshadowed by other current mass human rights violations around the world.

The majority of the citizens of Serbia place their hopes on Europe.