Protest in Belgrade on March 15 (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)
The Novi Sad Higher Public Prosecutor's Office on May 12 filed an indictment before the city's Higher Court against 12 activists of the Free Citizens Movement and the Students against Authoritarian Government organization charging them with multiple felonies against constitutional order and asking for maximum sentences.
The two organization's activists who were arrested have been in detention for almost two months after an audio recording was released of them allegedly planning to force their way into the Serbian parliament and Serbian Broadcasting Corporation during a massive student-led protest in Belgrade on March 15.
They were charged with the crimes of planning actions against constitutional order and security in Serbia, attacking constitutional order and advocating the violent overthrow of constitutional order.
The prosecutor's office moved that the court extend the detention of the six detainees already in custody and to try the others, "who are at large and are unavailable to state agencies," in absentia.
The Free Citizens Movement said the indictment was proof that the Novi Sad Higher Public Prosecutor's Office was under the thumb of the regime.
"The indictment is based on illegally obtained evidence which, even if it were legal, in no way indicates founded suspicion of guilt in the crimes the defendants are charged with," read a press release from the organization.
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