Category: Persecution
Period: from 22 Mar 2025
Outcome: Under investigation (as of 13 Jun 2025)
On 11 June 2025, police arrested half a dozen people, among them Snežana Brkić, dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad, who had publicly backed the students in the blockade, on suspicion of causing more than 181 million dinars in damage to the budget. The Academic Plenum called the arrests “retaliation by the authorities”, because the Faculty of Medicine was the only faculty on strike at the University of Novi Sad, while SNS president Miloš Vučević said the arrests had “nothing whatsoever to do with the blockades”. The Higher Court in Novi Sad placed them under house arrest; as of November 2026, we have found no report of an indictment, of the house arrest being lifted, or of a verdict.
Snežana Brkić, an infectious disease specialist who in 2021 became the first woman to head the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Novi Sad, publicly backed the students' blockades, and most of the faculty's staff had been on strike since 22 March 2025.
According to the Nova.rs portal and the daily Danas, before the arrest the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad opened proceedings against her and members of the strike committee, based on a complaint stating that she had taken part in organising the strike.
On 11 June 2025, on the orders of the Special Anti-Corruption Department of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad, police arrested half a dozen people, including dean Snežana Brkić, on suspicion of causing more than 181 million dinars in damage to the budget. According to the prosecution, the dean and a trio of other employees are accused of paying themselves and some of the non-teaching staff unjustifiably inflated salaries from 2022 to the end of 2024, totalling around 30 million dinars. The prosecution suspects other suspects over payments to a student cooperative against fictitious invoices and over unpaid corporate income tax.
The Higher Court in Novi Sad placed them under house arrest on 13 June.
The Academic Plenum called the arrest “retaliation by the authorities” for supporting the students' demands, since the Faculty of Medicine was the only faculty on strike at the University of Novi Sad; Goran Roglić, dean of the Faculty of Chemistry in Belgrade, said the cause could be a dispute over how the decree and the law on public sector salaries are interpreted.
SNS president Miloš Vučević said the arrest had “nothing to do with the blockades”, and the Ministry of Justice said no one may be exempt from the law.
According to the Beta news agency, in September 2025 the faculty council accepted the resignation of Snežana Brkić and appointed Duško Kozić acting dean; the reason for the resignation was not made public. As of November 2026 we have found no report of an indictment, of the house arrest being lifted or of a verdict.