Opposition Party Files Criminal Reports Against Police Unit Commander, Seven Associates

BETAPHOTO/Milos Miskov

The SRCE Serbia Center party on Aug. 18 filed criminal reports with the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime against Marko Kricak, the commanding officer of the police's Unit for the Protection of Individuals and Buildings, and seven of his associates, alleging violations of the rights of students after an Aug. 14 protest in Belgrade.

According to the reports, after the protest, Kricak and his associates took three students into a garage of the building housing the Serbian government, where they "forced them to kneel, repeatedly stomped on them, struck them, and slapped them, took and broke their mobile phones, and threatened to shoot them in the head." One of the students has recounted publicly that Kricak threatened to rape her, and that he struck and slapped her repeatedly.

"The purpose of these actions by members of the [Unit for the Protection of Individuals and Buildings] was to inflict great pain and severe suffering in order to intimidate the victims. The perpetrators, in addition to abusing the authority of an officer, obviously intended to cover up the event and evidence, and obstruct the evidentiary process," SRCE said in a press release.

Miroslav Aleksic, the president of the People's Movement of Serbia, on Aug. 18 sent a letter to the representatives of the international community in Serbia about the overall social and political situation in the country, urging them "not to turn a blind eye to human rights violations."

In his letter, Aleksic said that fundamental human rights had been severely violated in the case of the two students targeted by Kricak and his associates, while the people have been abandoned to fear, without any protection from institutions, adding that his party would file a criminal report against Kricak, who "must urgently be relieved of duty as commander" of the Unit for the Protection of Individuals and Buildings.