Injured Officer Claims Ignorance Over Identity of His Assailant

Serbian Police Car (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC/MO)

In a statement released on March 11, Lazar Bacic, the police officer seriously injured in front of the RTS public service during the March 10 university student blockade of its headquarters, claimed he did not see his assailants and that, after receiving several blows, he lost consciousness.

In the video, published in the evening hours by the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Bacic maintained that his gendarmerie unit had been attacked, making no mention of being out of uniform.

“[In the evening of March 10], my unit was tasked with peacefully entering the Radio Television of Serbia and securing [the building] from within, during which my unit was stopped and attacked, and I sustained multiple hits to the body and head. One of the blows, which I think was made by a metal object i.e. brass knuckles, was so strong I immediately lost consciousness. I believe only a thorough investigation will determine the facts [of the incident],” Officer Bacic stated.

Video recordings previously published on social media, however, show a plain-clothed Bacic walking with the protesting students, parallel to said gendarmerie unit. When he attempted to join the file of uniformed officers, he was struck in the head and fell, after which the surrounding students helped him stand up and move away.

Meanwhile, the Radar weekly’s website published an audio recording of Bacic speaking with a man who introduced himself as his former police colleague Slobodan Pajic. During the conversation, Bacic indirectly confirmed he was injured by officers from his own unit, but rejected Pajic’s suggestion to make this information public.

The video statement later released by the Interior Ministry has Bacic claiming ignorance over the identity of his attacker and stating that his private telephone conversation leaked to the press was taken out of context and misused.

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic published a photo of himself and the injured officer late on March 10, along with the assertion Bacic was beaten by the protesting students – whom Vucic dubbed “Bolshevik plenum-thugs.”