Serbia Investigates Allegations of Police Assault on Two LGBT People
An activist holds a rainbow colored umbrella as police officers stand guard ahead of the EuroPride march in Belgrade, Serbia, 17 September 2022. EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC
Serbia’s Interior Ministry said on Monday that the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the alleged assault by police officers in Belgrade after a complaint from LGBT rights organisation Da se zna (Let it be Known).
“The internal control section informed the relevant prosecutor’s office, by order of which the veracity of the allegations in the complaint is being determined,” the Interior Ministry told Radio Free Europe.
It added that “if it is found that [the police officers] exceeded their powers, will be sanctioned in accordance with the law”.
The ministry acted after Da se zna alleged that police officers beat and humiliated two LGBT people during a search of an apartment in the Serbian capital.
Da se Zna representative Bojan Lazic said on Monday that the police raided the apartment on February 14. He described the incident as “the most difficult case that the organisation has recorded in its eight years of existence”.
Lazic said the police broke into the apartment, allegedly because of a report that there were drugs inside. The search was allegedly carried out by police special forces officers who did not show a warrant.
According to Lazic, a young man and women suffered physical injuries, as well as severe psychological trauma.
“They saw the LGBT+ flag and from that moment, the brutal experience began,” he said, stressing that the violence continued in the police station after their arrest.
He said that the officers insulted the young man, called him derogatory names, told him that he should be killed, touched his genitals and simulated oral sex using his head.
According to Lazic, they also insulted his roommate, the young woman, and hit them, inflicting physical injuries.
Sanja Malinovic, the mother of the young man who was allegedly assaulted, described the police’s behaviour as brutal.
Malinovic said that her son was beaten, insulted and threatened with rape until he confessed that he was gay, and that instead of using handcuffs, the police officers tied him up with a rope. They also video-recorded their behaviour on a mobile phone and shared the recordings amongt themselves.
She also alleged that a policeman put his hand in her son’s trousers and pulled his penis, which she described as a sexual assault.
Malinovic said that police telephoned her during the night after the assault and that an inspector told her: “Mummy, you’re going to find out what your little son likes.”
The Interior Ministry insisted that police officers and members of an intervention unit entered the apartment to search it on the basis of a court order.
The police also announced that the Prosecutor’s Office, after an expert examination, filed two criminal charges alleging the unauthorised possession of narcotics.
Da se zna, which provides legal and psychological support to LGBT people in Serbia, documented more than 80 cases of violence and discrimination against members of the community in 2023.
