Interpol rejects Serbia’s request for international arrest warrants against activists

NOVI SAD – The Serbian activist group STAV said today that Interpol’s decision to reject Serbia’s request to issue an international arrest warrant against six activists from Novi Sad confirms its claim that the case against them is politically motivated rather than criminal in nature.

A total of twelve political activists from Novi Sad, Serbia, are being prosecuted for allegedly preparing a violent overthrow of the constitutional order last year. The arrest warrants were issued following a leaked recording of the meeting of the activists ahead of the massive student-led protest in Belgrade on 15 March 2025.

Six activists were arrested last March and spent months in prison. Another six were outside Serbia when the arrest warrants were issued and have not returned since. All of them deny they committed acts the prosecution accuses them of.

The group members who are currently living in exile, stated today that Interpol concluded in its reasoning that the matter is political, and therefore declined to act on Serbia’s request, FoNet news agency reports.

The activists said they have been subjected for the past 16 months to what they describe as politically motivated persecution, noting that national arrest warrants have been issued against them, they have been placed in pretrial detention, their personal identification documents have been revoked, and a trial in absentia has been scheduled.

STAV argues that the case is being pursued without evidence and represents an attempt to intimidate activists and citizens who criticize the government.

“You will not intimidate us, and you cannot drive us away. Your hands are still bloody,” the members of the activist group Stav said in their statement.

As reported by the media yesterday, Interpol rejected Serbia’s request to issue an international arrest warrant for six activists and students associated with the organization STAV and the Movement of Free Citizens (PSG), who, according to their legal defense, have been living in political exile for the past 16 months.

Veljko Milić, attorney for some of the defendants, told Insajder TV that Interpol determined the case to be political in nature and therefore would not act on Serbia’s requests.

According to him, the decision is consistent with Interpol’s rules, under which it does not intervene in cases it considers to have a political character.

Arrests and charges after a leaked conversation

On 13 March 2025, two days before the massive protest in Belgrade, the biggest pro-government television channels jointly broadcast a two-hour special dedicated to a leaked recording of the meeting of activists in Novi Sad.

The activists, who were not the organisers of the protests, discussed possible actions they could take depending on the course of events.

The discussion was described by the pro-government journalists as proof of pending bloodshed and civil war on 15 March. The protest on that day passed relatively peacefully, with accusations against the government that it had, at one point, used an unidentified acoustic device against the protesters.

A day before the protest, six activists were arrested in Novi Sad. Another six participants in the meeting were outside Serbia when the arrests happened and have not returned to the country since. An arrest warrant for them was subsequently issued.

The imprisoned activists were released and sent to house arrest several months later, following a hunger strike of one of the activists, high school professor Marija Vasić. This measure was also revoked later during the year.

On 12 May, after two months in prison, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad officially charged the activists with preparing an attack on the constitutional order and calling for a violent overthrow of the constitutional order. The Prosecutor’s Office asked for a maximum sentence of five years in prison for preparing these acts.