We Call for the Urgent Invitation of a UN Fact-Finding Mission into the Alleged Use of an Acoustic Device Against Citizens on 15 March 2025

Civil society organisations express deep concern over the direction of the investigative actions concerning the incident of 15 March 2025, which have recently been undertaken by the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. The current conduct of this Prosecutor’s Office is the exact opposite of the thorough and impartial investigation that such a grave case requires. Instead, it indicates a deliberate intention to cover up the actual incident and divert public attention towards the political persecution of victims and all those who have provided them with legal or other forms of support.

We believe that the investigation into the events of 15 March should, from the outset, have been conducted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime, which withdrew from the case without providing any information or explanation. The case was subsequently transferred to the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, which handled the proceedings inefficiently. The latest development, in which the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that it would take over the case and investigate the alleged planning and organisation of a simulation of the use of an acoustic device as part of the planning and commission of criminal offences against the constitutional order, repreAsents an absurd reversal of facts.

The Prosecutor’s Office is substantiating these suspicions with a document prepared by students at one of their plenums, even though the content of that document clearly shows that the sound cannon was considered solely as a risk, namely as a threat that the police might use such a device against participants in the student protests, and not as a tool that students intended to use or whose use they intended to simulate at the protest..

The investigative actions of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office have entered an extremely alarming phase of open pressure on freedom of expression and critical thinking. Yesterday’s search of the apartment and detention of military analyst Aleksandar Radić, together with the Prosecutor’s Office’s announcements that it will prosecute everyone who allegedly planned, organised and provided media support for the creation of a “narrative about the alleged use of an acoustic device ”, clearly demonstrates an intention to intimidate all those who refused to remain silent in the face of evident violence against citizens.

Contrary to these fabricated allegations of simulations, we remind the public of the indisputable facts and the scale of this incident. Several thousand citizens have contacted our organisations, reporting that they were victims of an unidentified acoustic impact during the protest held on 15 March 2025 in Belgrade, suffering various health consequences of both a somatic and psychological nature. Due to the seriousness of the situation and the risk of recurrence, 47 citizens requested that the European Court of Human Rights indicate an interim measure, which the Court granted, calling on the domestic authorities to prevent any use of acoustic devices for crowd-control purposes at protests. At the invitation of the European Court, a formal application was also submitted, while civil society organisations have duly provided all their findings to the competent domestic authorities, to establish all the facts and determine responsibility for this incident. In early April 2025, civil society organisations filed a criminal complaint for terrorism with the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime and provided legal assistance to citizens in connection with giving statements before the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Given that the President of the Republic has expressed readiness for any foreign service to conduct an investigation into the events of 15 March, we consider it crucial that credible and impartial international mechanisms be involved in this process. We therefore call on the state to urgently submit a request to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, High Commissioner Mr Volker Türk, for the establishment of an independent fact-finding mission  concerning the incidents that occurred during the protest in Belgrade on 15 March 2025. We recall that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has already publicly put forward this proposal, to which the domestic authorities have so far failed to respond. Given that the domestic judiciary has yielded to political pressure and turned the investigation into the political persecution of victims and those who have supported them, a UN mission remains the only available guarantee capable of impartially establishing the full truth about the sonic blast against thousands of citizens of Serbia.

We recall that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has already publicly proposed such a step, to which the Serbian authorities have so far failed to respond. Given that the domestic judiciary has yielded to political pressure and transformed the investigation into the political persecution of victims and those who have supported them, a UN mission remains the only available guarantee capable of establishing the full truth about the alleged use of an acoustic device against thousands of citizens of Serbia in an impartial manner.

Signatory Organisations

  • A 11 – Initiative for Economic and Social Rights
  • Autonomous Women’s Center
  • Belgrade Centre for Security Policy
  • Belgrade Centre for Human Rights
  • Center for Cultural Decontamination
  • CRTA
  • FemPlatz
  • Civic Initiatives
  • Youth Initiative for Human Rights
  • Judicial Research Centre – CEPRIS
  • Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM
  • Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS)
  • NUNS
  • Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation
  • Trag Foundation
  • Women in Black

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